UC-NRLF 


ALEXANDER  GOLDSTEIN 


THE   PICTURE 


AND 


THE   MEN: 


BEING 

BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES    OP    PRESIDENT    LINCOLN    AND    HIS 

CABINET  ;    TOGETHER  WITH  AN  ACCOUNT  OP   THE   LIFE   OF 

THE  CELEBRATED  ARTIST,  F.  B.   CARPENTER,  AUTHOR 

OF  THE  GREAT  NATIONAL  PAINTING, 

THE  FIRST  READING 

OP  THE 

EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION 

BEFORE  TUB  CABINET  BY  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN; 

INCLUDING  ALSO 

AN   ACCOUNT   OP   THE    PICTURE  ;    AN    ACCOT'NT    OP   THE   CRISIS   WHICH    PRO 
DUCED  IT  ;  AND  AN  APPENDIX  CONTAINING  THE  GREAT  PROCLAMA 
TION  AND  THE   SUPPLEMENTARY  PROCLAMATION  OP  JAN 
UARY  1,  1863;  TOGETHER  WITH  A  PORTRAIT  OP  THE 

ARTIST,  AND  A  KEY  TO  THE  PICTURE. 
COMPILED  BY 

FRED.    B.   (PERKINS, 

EDITOR  OP  "  THE  GALAXY,"  FORMERLY  ONE  OP  THE  EDITORS  OP  THB  NEW 
YORK  "TRIBUNE,"  AND  OP  THE  NEW  YORK  "INDEPENDENT." 


try 
A.  J.  JOHNSON,  NEW  YORK. 

F.    G.     &    A.    C.    ROWE,    CLEVELAND,    OHIO. 
C.  ALLEN,  M.D.,   CHICAGO,  ILL. 

1867. 


ENTERED,  ACCORDING  TO  ACT  or  CONGRESS,  IN  THE  YEAR  1SG7,  BY 
A.    J.    JOHNfTON, 

IN  TIIE  CLERK'S  OFFICE  OF  THE  DISTRICT  COURT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
FOR  THE  SOUTHERN  DISTRICT  OF  NEW  YORK. 


DATIES  &  KENT, 

Electrotypers  and  Stereotypcrs, 

183  WILLIAM  ST.,  N.  Y. 


PREFACE. 


THIS  rapidly-written  little  book  is  intended 
to  serve  as  a  companion  and  key  to  Mr.  Car 
penter's.,  great  picture.  The  sketches  of  the 
persons  whom  that  picture  represents,  the  ac 
count  of  the  picture  itself,  of  the  crisis  which 
suggested  it,  and  of  the  painter  who  executed 
it,  are  all  meant  to  give  such  information  as 
will  help  to  a  clearer  and  fuller  understanding 
of  the  painting. 

The  writer  has  no  wish  to  conceal  the  fact 
that  he  is  what  is  called  an  "extreme  Radi 
cal  ;"  but  he  has  sought  to  omit  himself  from 
this  subject,  and  to  sketch  the  persons  here 
represented,  not  with  reference  to  any  ap 
proval  or  disapproval  of  his  own,  but  as  they 
may  justly  be  believed  to  have  meant  while 
laboring  honestly  to  the  best  of  their  ability 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

M773751 


iv  PREFACE. 

The  principal  authorities  used  in  the  work, 
besides  some  standard  books  of  reference  ac 
cessible  to  all,  are  :  Mr.  Carpenter's  own  very 
interesting  work,  "  Six  Months  at  the  White 
House,77  a  singularly  full  collection  of  the 
most  graphic  and  entertaining  anecdotes  and 
reminiscences  ;  the  lives  of  Mr.  Lincoln  by 
Raymond,  Holland,  Barrett,  Crosby,  and  Mrs. 
Hanaford  ;  Trowbridge's  biography  of  Mr. 
Chase,  entitled  "Ferry  Boy  and  Financier;" 
and  Baker's  Life  of  Seward. 

Technical  criticism  of  Mr.  Carpenter's  pic 
ture  has  been  avoided  ;  as  the  writer  is  one 
of  the  very  few  persons  living  who  do  not 
understand  the  business  of  art  criticism. 

FRED.  B.  PERKINS. 
January  2d,  1867. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

LIFE  OF  FRANCIS  B.  CARPENTER 7 

THE  OCCASION 19 

THE  PICTURE 32 

PRESIDENT  LINCOLN 50 

SECRETARY  SEWARD 114 

SECRETARY  CHASE 137 

SECRETARY  SMITU 156 

SECRETARY  WELLES 159 

SECRETARY  STANTON 164 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL  BATES 177 

POSTMASTER-GENERAL  BLAIR 180 

APPENDIX  :  THE  PROCLAMATIONS .  .185 


THE  PICTURE  AND  THE  MEN, 


F.    B.    CARPENTER. 

FRANCIS  BICKNELL  CARPENTER,  painter  of  the  picture 
of  "  The  First  Reading  of  the  Emancipation  Procla 
mation  by  President  Lincoln  to  his  Cabinet,"  is  an 
artist  of  high  reputation,  having  already  painted  por 
traits  of  Ex-President  Tyler,  President  Pierce,  Presi 
dent  Fillmore,  Chief-Justice  Chase,  Secretary  Marcy, 
Secretary  Seward,  Senators  Cass  and  Houston,  Attor 
ney-General  Gushing,  and  many  other  eminent  persons 
besides.  Like  Mr.  Lincoln,  Mr.  Fillmore,  and  many 
more  of  the  distinguished  Americans  who  have  sat  to 
him,  Mr.  Carpenter  was  born  in  humble  circumstances, 
and  has  earned  his  own  prosperity  and  reputation  by 
good  conduct  and  hard  work — a  truly  American  career. 

Mr.  Carpenter  was  born  in  Homer,  Cortland  County, 
New  York,  Aug.  6,  1830.  His  father  was  a  respectable 
farmer,  of  almost  as  practical  a  character  as  King 
George  the  Second,  whose  whole  doctrine  about  the 
fine  arts  was  expressed  by  his  saying,  in  his  German 
brogue,  "  I  hate  bainting,  and  boetry  too."  Young 


8  THE   PICTURE   AND   T1IE   MEN. 

Carpenter  was  intended  by  his  good  father  for  a  farmer, 
or  perhaps  a  country  merchant,  and  like  other  country 
boys  lie  was  sent  to  the  "  deestrick  school,"  or  American 
university. 

As  soon  as  the  boy  was  old  enough  to  have  any 
preferences,  he  showed  a  strong  love  for  Art.  This  was 
when  he  was  at  school,  and  eight  years  old,  and  its 
first  occasion  was  his  seeing  and  admiring  a  clever 
pencil- drawing  made  on  a  panel  of  the  school-room 
door,  one  day  at  recess,  by  a  schoolmate  named  Otis, 
subsequently  a  distinguished  physician  in  New  York. 
This  door-panel  picture  stirred  up  in  young  Carpenter 
the  desire  and  resolve  which  made  him  an  artist.  For 
the  next  five  or  six  years  the  little  fellow  worked  away 
with  untiring  industry,  drawing  pictures  of  all  sorts  of 
things,  on  whatever  would  hold  a  picture.  He  had 
neither  instruction,  books,  nor  models.  Farmers'  sons 
seldom  have  much  money,  and  the  resolute  boy  often 
traveled  three  miles  to  the  village  to  invest  his  total 
capital,  usually  not  over  two  cents,  in  a  sheet  of  unruled 
foolscap  and  a  pencil.  Blank  leaves  out  of  old  account 
books,  all  manner  of  blank  and  waste  papers,  blank 
walls,  both  inside  of  the  house  and  out,  smooth  pieces 
of  board — every  available  surface — were  industriously 
used  instead  of  canvas,  and  some  of  these  monuments 
of  youthful  effort  still  decorate  the  walls  of  the  old 
homestead.  As  in  many  other  cases,  this  youthful  pe 
riod  was  one  of  ambition  as  great  as  its  experience  was 
small ;  the  boy  soareji  promptly  into  the  ideal  realm 
of  historical  painting,  and  among  other  scenes  chalked 
on  the  side  of  the  old  barn  the  capture  of  Andre,  and 
William  Tell  Shooting  the  Apple  from  his  Son's  Head. 


F.    B.    CAKPENTEK.  9 

All  this  vigorous  industry  met  with  little  response, 
except  snubs  and  sneers.  Mr.  Carpenter  promptly  re 
buked  every  hint  from  his  son  about  becoming  a 

painter.  And  Deacon  I ,  one  of  the  more  eminent 

dignitaries  of  the  neighborhood,  when  somebody  asked 
him  some  question  about  all  this  drawing,  answered, 
with  great  scorn,  "  Humph  !  you  can't  turn  over  a 
chip  on  his  father's  farm  without  findin'  a  pictur' 
of  a  chicken  or  sun  thin'  on  t'other  side  on't !"  And 
this,  by  the  way,  is  ail  that  is  known  of  the  eminent  and 
influential  deacon. 

When  young  Carpenter  was  thirteen,  his  father 
sought  to  put  him  in  the  way  of  earning  a,  respectable 
living,  and  secured  for  him,  to  this  end,  -employment 
in  a  grocery  store  in  Ithaca.  But  Drawing  molasses 
was  not  the  kind  of  drawing  which  the  young  gentle 
man  preferred,  and  the  worthy  man  of  codfish  soon 
became  sure  that  the  youth  was  lt  a  poor  creature." 
For  six  months  he  tried  faithfully  to  make  the  boy  do 
something  useful,  but  all  in  vain ;  and  quite  discour 
aged,  he  sent  him  home  to  his  father  with  a  letter  say 
ing  that  he  showed  nothing  of  the  intelligence  neces 
sary  for  mercantile  business,  and  that  his  mind  turned 
entirely  to  drawing  and  reading.  Therefore,  advised 
the  good  grocer,  the  best  thing  to  be  done  with  him  is 
to  keep  him  at  work  on  the  farm  !  This  sage  advice 
was  followed,  and  doubtless  Mr.  Carpenter,  senior,  and 
the  other  elders,  concluded,  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton's 
teacher  did  about  him,  that  the  boy  was  a  hopeless 
dunce. 

Just  at  this  time  Mr.  George  L.  Clough,  a  young 
artist  from  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  came  to  Homer  to  paint 


10  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

some  portraits,  and  young  Carpenter,  getting  permis 
sion  to  see  him  work,  watched  the  operation  of  paint 
ing  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  and  with  the  keen 
ness  of  a  famished  man's  appetite.  Some  new  ideas 
on  the  subject  of  color  were  thus  acquired,  and  with 
the  prompt  executive  impulse  of  a  natural  worker, 
the  boy  quickly  set  himself  to  try  them.  Colors  and 
pencils  lie  had  not,  and  could  not  buy,  and  the  sugges 
tion  of  a  neighbor  that  house  paint  would  do  nicely  to 
begin  with,  was  a  welcome  one.  Away  he  went  to 
the  village  and  got  one  pound  of  white  lead ;  back 
again  home,  and  there  he  found  some  lampblack  which 
was- used  to  mark  sheep.  This  served  for  light  and 
shade;  and  for  color,  he  discovered  some  lumps  of 
Venetian  red,  which  had  dried  up  in  a  corner  of  the 
barn  until  so  hard  that  he  had  to  pound  them  up  on 
the  door-step.  His  pencils  were  of  the  sort  used  by  car 
riage-painters,  his  pallet  was  whittled  out  of  a  piece 
of  shingle,  and  his  canvas  a  piece  of  coat  lining.  Thus 
armed,  the  youthful  artist  coaxed  his  mother  to  sit, 
and  soon  outlined  and  almost  completed  an  easily 
recognized  likeness,  with  what  curious  grays,  reds,  and 
browns  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine.  But  all  parties  to 
this  great  work  were  afraid  of  Mr.  Carpenter,  senior, 
who  had  grown  really  angry  in  opposing  the  "  non 
sense,"  as  he  termed  it,  of  his  son ;  and  so  it  was  kept  a 
profound  secret.  Now  Master  Frank  had  become 
rather  unpleasantly  conspicuous  on  the  farm  for  being 
always  invisible  at  work-hours  ;  he  was  always  out  of 
the  way — "  'round  the  corner,"  like  Mr.  Chevy  Slyinc 
in  the  novel.  One  day  the  impatient  father  wanted 
Frank's  help,  and  so,  instead  of  calling  him,  went  right 


F.    B.    CARPENTER.  11 

to  his  room.  Striding  angrily  in,  he  saw  the  picture, 
and  stopped  short : 

"  Who  is  that  ?"  he  asked. 

"Don't  you  know,  father?"  said  the  boy,  roguishly, 
and  yet  earnestly. 

"It  is  your  mother,  I  suppose,"  said  the  father, 
gruffly,  though  honestly ;  and  he  was  somewhat  con 
science-struck  at  seeing  that  the  boy  who  had  not  mind 
enough  for  groceries  could  actually  make  a  likeness. 
He  turned  and  hastily  left  the  room  without  a  word, 
but  his  manner-  toward  his  son  at  once-  became  much 
more  agreeable.  Indeed,  he  even  sat  to  him  himself, 
selecting  only  rainy  days,  when  he  could  not  work, 
and  feeling  so  slight  an  interest  in  the  matter  that  he 
fell  asleep  on  one  occasion  at  least,  within  ten  minutes 
after  sitting  down.  Nevertheless,  the  likeness  was  un 
mistakable,  though  rough ;  and  the  neighbors  said  it 

CD  O        /  O 

was  decidedly  better  than  the  works  of  the  wandering 
artists  who  had  been  the  only  painters  there  before.  A 
small  compliment,  yet  doubtless  true. 

At  length  the  sturdy  opposition  of  the  father  to  the 
single  ambition  of  the  son  gave  way,  and  it  was  agreed 
that  young  Carpenter  might  obtain  some  regular  pro 
fessional  instruction.  Promptly  and  joyfully  the  boy 
applied  to  Mr.  Sandford  Thayer,  of  Syracuse,  who  ex 
amined  him  closely,  received  him  into  his  studio,  and 
during  five  months  gave  him  a  course  of  judicious  in 
struction  which,  became  a  solid  foundation  for  subse 
quent  technical  acquirements.  Mr.  Thayer  had  been  a 
student  under  the  eminent  portrait-painter  Elliott,  who 
visited  Syracuse  and  painted  several  portraits  in  Mr. 
Thayer's  studio  while  young  Carpenter  was  there. 


12  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

Mr.  Elliott,  a  genial  and  thoroughly  kind-hearted  man, 
took  a  great  interest  in  the  zealous  young  apprentice, 
allowed  him  full  opportunity  of  observing  his  methods, 
gave  him  advice  which  was  of  much  service  to  him, 
and  has  ever  since  been  his  steadfast  friend. 

Mr.  Carpenter  opened  a  studio  for  the  first  time,  in 
his  native  village  of  Homer,  in  the  year  1846,  before 
he  was  sixteen.  He  boarded  at  home  for  a  few  weeks, 
but  his  father  soon  notified  him  that,  having  chosen  his 
profession,  he  must  live  entirely  by  it ;  so  he  stoutly 
went  into  the  village  and  electioneered  for  board  from 
house  to  house,  offering  to  paint  portraits  in  pay  for 
his  meals.  For  the  first  year  or  two  his  "  chariot- 
wheels  drave  heavily"  enough.  His  first  commission 
was  to  paint  the  portrait  of  a  clerk  in  the  village  store, 
who  paid  him  with  cloth  enough  for  a  pair  of  panta 
loons;  and  his  second  brought  him  a  pair  of  boots. 
But  this  success,  though  not  very  brilliant,  was  exceed 
ingly  substantial,  and  it  was  real  practice,  too ;  so  the 
youth  worked  on  with  good  courage.  His  first  large 
cash  fee  was  ten  dollars.  This  sum  was  paid  him  by 
Hon.  H.  S.  Randall,  who  lived  in  the  vicinity,  for 
drawings  to  illustrate  his  well-known  book  on  sheep 
husbandry.  Mr.  Randall,  recognizing  the  talent  of  the 
young  artist,  soon  afterward  employed  him  to  paint 
his  portrait.  Shortly  afterward,  he  painted  the  por 
traits  of  the  nine  survivors  of  the  original  Trustees  of 
Cortland  Academy  ;  and  the  pictures,  still  adorning  the 
Academy  library,  though  crude  and  rough,  possess  all 
the  chief  characteristics  of  the  artist's  style.  In  1848, 
Mr.  Carpenter  sent  to  the  "  American  Art  Union,"  then 
a  flourishing  institution  in  New  York  city,  an  ideal 


F.    B.    CAKPKNTEK.  13 

female  head.  This  was  submitted  to  the  purchasing 
committee  along  with  about  four  hundred  other  paint 
ings,  and  was  one  of  the  twelve  which  they  decided  to 
buy,  out  of  the  whole  number;  and  the  struggling 
young  countryman  received  what  was  to  him  the  really 
handsome  sum  of  fifty  dollars.  This  was  a  genuine 
artistic  and  financial  success,  and  was  the  beginning  of 
Mr.  Carpenter's  career  of  efficient  professional  labor 
and  prosperity,  though  he  had  poverty  and  difficulty 
yet  to  encounter.  The  Art  Union  afterward  bought 
several  others  of  Mr.  Carpenter's  pictures,  being  all  that 
he  offered  them ;  and  he  now  had  a  good  many  com 
missions  for  portraits,  though  at  low  rates. 

In  the  spring  of  1851  Mr,  Carpenter  established  him 
self  in  New  York  city,  sending  to  the  Exhibition  of 
the  Academy  of  Design  a  portrait  of  a  young  girl, 
which  was  liked  by  many,  and  so  much  so  by  W.  S. 
Mount,  the  painter,  that  he  took  pains  to  become 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Carpenter,  sat  to  him,  and  did  all 
in  his  power  to  make  him  known.  In  the  next  autumn 
Mr.  Carpenter  married  Miss  Augusta  II.  Prentiss. 

The  following  winter  he  executed  a  full-length  portrait 
of  Mr.  David  Leavitt,  which,  at  the  next  Exhibition  of 
the  Academy,  was  very  highly  praised,  and  the  artist 
was  now  chosen  Associate  of  the  Academy,  at  what 
was  then  an  unusually  early  age.  In  the  autumn  of 
1852,  Hon.  D.  A.  Bokee,  of  Brooklyn,  commissioned 
Mr.  Carpenter  to  paint  a  full-length  of  President  Fill- 
more,  which  was  a  very  successful  picture,  and  re 
ceived  an  extremely  flattering  testimonial  in  a  letter 
from  the  President.  The  city  of  New  York  bought  a 
duplicate  of  this  picture.  During  the  first  winter  of 


14:  THE   PICTUliE   AND   THE   MEN. 

Gen.  Pierce's  term,  Mr.  Carpenter  was  employed  to 
paint  his  picture,  the  President  consenting  only  with 
great  reluctance,  because  several  previous  pictures  had 
all  been  unsatisfactory.  lie,  however,  quickly  found 
himself  much  interested  in  the  work,  and  both  he  and  his 
friends  considered  it  beyond  comparison  the  best  por 
trait  ever  taken  of  him.  At  the  urgent  request  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pierce,  Mr.  Carpenter  afterward  exe 
cuted  successfully  the  difficult  task  of  painting  a  pic- 
.ture  of  their  deceased  son,  the  materials  being  only  a 
defective  daguerreotype,  and  the  recollections  of  sur 
viving  friends.  The  genial  personal  qualities  of  the 
artist,  and  his  peculiar  professional  abilities,  had  by 
this  time  secured  him  efficient  friends  at  Washington  ; 
and  in  the  beginning  of  1855  he  went  to  Washington- 
again,  commissioned  to  paint  Governor  Marcy,  and 
Senators  Cass,  Chase,  Houston,  and  Seward.  Congress 
adjourned  before  the  work  was  completed,  but  Presi 
dent  Pierce  invited  the  artist  to  stay  at  the  White 
House  for  the  rest  of  his  visit,  and  here  he  executed 
two  portraits  of  Gov.  Marcy,  one  of  Attorney-General 
Gushing,  and  a  profile  head  of  the  President. 

Among  the  other  portraits  painted  by  Mr.  Carpenter 
may  be  mentioned  those  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  his 
father,  Rev.  Lyman  Beecher,  Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  ex- 
Mayors  Talmadge,  Brush,  Lambert,  and  Hall  of  Brook 
lyn,  General  McDonald,  Professors  Gibbs  and  Aiken, 
General  Fremont,  Rev.  Drs.  Cox,  Field,  Bushnell,  and 
Bacon,  Captain  Hudson  of  the  first  telegraph  fleet, 
etc.,  etc. 

Mr.  Carpenter  is  now  comfortably  established  in  New 
York  city,  and  is  enjoying  the  reputation  and  income 


F.    B.    CAKPENTEK.  15 

which  are  the  just  earnings  of  so  much  undiscouraged 
toil  and  sincere  thought  and  effort. 

Mr.  Carpenter  is  distinctly  a  portrait-painter,  both 
by  natural  preference  and  natural  endowment.  From 
the  very  first  awakening  of  his  inclination  for  Art,  his 
attention  was  always  drawn  most  keenly  to  the  human 
face  and  head.  These  he  studies  with  instinctive 
special  love ;  enjoys  their  traits  and  their  meaning,  and 
labors  with  his  happiest  spontaneous  thoughts  and 
skill  to  reproduce  them  on  canvas. 

This  natural  preference,  however,  would  be  very  im 
perfect  without  that  fitness  for  the  work  which  Mr. 
Carpenter's  mental  and  physical  constitution  affords. 
lie  has  a  quick  and  sensitive  intuition  of  character, 
ready  sympathies,  a  calm  and  even  cheerfulness  of  dis 
position,  is  perfectly  unassuming  in  fact  and  in  manner, 
and  is  at  once  kindly,  receptive,  and  appreciative.  The 
student  of  character  will  easily  see  that  these  traits 
constitute  the  agreeable  companion  as  well  as  the  in 
telligent  painter.  This  is  just  the  combination  calcu 
lated  to  render  Mr.  Carpenter  a  welcome  friend  to  the 
numerous  eminent  political  leaders  whom  he  has 
painted.  They  are  quick-witted  and  clear-headed  men, 
and  have  a  pretty  good  judgment  on  the  essential 
merits  of  a  picture ;  they  spend  their  lives  in  contend 
ing  with  rivals  and  opponents ;  and  they  find  in  the 
artist  a  painter  just  and  competent  without  flattery,  a 
friend,  calm  and  appreciative  and  genial,  who  wants 
neither  influence  nor  office,  and  whose  easy  conver 
sation  and  pleasant  society  make  his  sitter's  chair  a 
sort  of  rest  and  home.  Mr.  Fillmore  was  once  asked 
by  a  lady  if  his  sittings  to  Mr.  Carpenter  were  not 


10*  THE    PICTURE    AND   THK    MEN. 

todious?  "O  no,  madam,"  he  replied,  promptly;  "it 
is  the  plcasantcst  hour  in  the  day." 

Criticisms  already  printed  have  recognized  more  or 
less  clearly  the  peculiar  traits  above  stated.  Thus  the 
JJome  Journal,  in  1856,  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Carpenters 
works  in  the  Exhibition  of  that  year,  observed :  "  The 
painter  of  these  pictures  is  perhaps  the  most  variously 
self-adaptable,  the  most  symmetrically  constituted,  safe, 
.•Hid  sure,  of  any  of  our  portrait-painters.  If  he  can  be 
characterized  by  anything,  it  is  the  almost  unexampled 
number  of  his  variations  of  color  and  style,  to  suit  the 
complexion  and  character  of  his  sitters."  And  the  X. 
Y.  Evening  Post  subsequently  remarked:  "The  por 
traits  by  this  artist  are  remarkable  chiefly  for  their 
subtile  mentality ;  for  their  faithful  rendering  of  the 
inward  life  and  disposition." 

Mr.  Carpenter's  character  as  a  man  may  be  in  some 
measure  estimated  by  his  career  as  an  artist.  He  pos 
sesses  excellent  mental  and  moral  endowments,  being 
resolute,  industrious,  prompt,  orderly,  and  efficient  in 
executive  matters,  and  upright  and  blameless  in  all  the 
relations  of  a  man  and  a  citizen.  During  the  first  ten 
months  of  his  residence  in  Xew  York  he  had  but  one 
or  two  commissions  for  portraits;  but  he  did  not  by 
any  means  sit  idle  for  that.  One  of  his  earliest  resolves 
was,  to  keep  at  work  at  something ;  and  if  he  had  no 
paying  sitters,  he  would  prevail  on  friends  or  acquaint 
ances  to  sit,  executing  their  pictures  with  as  much  consci 
entious  study  and  effort  as  if  they  had  every  one  been 
Presidents.  This  was  sound  business  practice  as  well 
as  sound  Art  practice,  because  his  skill  increased  just  as 
much  as  if  his  time  were  full ;  and  when  the  next  com- 


F.    B.    CARPENTKK. 


17 


mission  did  come,  he  was  sure  to  paint  better  than 
ever  before.  Nor  has  he  grown  idle  yet.  The  true 
ideal  of  the  artist's  industry  is  exactly,  in  Art,  what  the 
Christian's  contest  is  in  life :  to  labor  all  his  life  toward 
a  perfection  which  he  is  bound  to  work  for  just  as  hard 
as  if  he  could  reach  it.  The  eminent  English  painter 
Mulready  became,  in  1817,  one  of  the  instructors  or 
" visitors"  in  the  "life  school,"  or  place  for  learning 
how  to  draw  the  human  figure.  In  1863,  after  holding 
this  position  for  forty-six  years,  the  old  man  declared — 
"  I  have,  from  the  first  moment  I  became  a  visitor  in 
the  life  school,  drawn  there  as  if  I  were  drawing  for  a 
prize"  Pie  was,  too;  but  it  was  a  higher  prize  than 
any  Academy  could  give.  Sir  Charles  Eastlake  said 
that  Mr.  Mulready  was  "  the  best  and  most  judicious 
teacher  the  Royal  Academy  ever  had ;"  and  Charles 
Landseer  said,  "  Perhaps  neither  is  there  now,  nor  at 
any  time  has  there  been,  so  great  a  draughtsman  as  Mr. 
Mulready."  Mr.  Carpenter  is  not  yet  the  first  painter 
in  the  world,  but  then  he  is  not  so  old  as  Mulready, 
who  was  born  in  1786.  But  his  industry  is  as  thorough 
in  principle  as  that  of  the  veteran  painter ;  it  was  only 
the  other  day  that  he  showed  a  friend  "  Chapman's 
American  Drawing  Book,"  which  he  had  under  his 
arm,  stating  that  he  had  purchased  it  with  the  inten 
tion  of  studying  it  thoroughly. 

Mr.  Carpenter's  views  of  the  ethics  of  Art,  as  well  as 
his  moral  and  religious  sentiments  generally,  *have 
always  been  ideally  high.  In  youth,  he  conceived  that 
the  artist  ought  of  necessity  to  be  of  the  purest  char 
acter,  and  with  boyish  enthusiasm  he  resolved  to  en 
deavor  to  realize  in  himself  in  some  measure  the  union 


18  THE    PICTDKB   AND   THE   MEN. 

of  artistic  ability  and  moral  excellence.  The  endeavor 
has  consistently  been  made.  The  very  endeavor  enno 
bles.  It  is  the  seeker  himself  after  such  high  endow 
ments  who  most  deeply  feels  the  weakness  of  human 
efforts  after  goodness.  But  the  high  position  and  the 
spotless  name  which  Mr.  Carpenter  has  gained  are 
most  fully  believed  his  just  due  by  those  who  know 
him  best. 

He  is  a  man  of  wide  intelligence  and  considerable 
literary  ability  and  attainment  outside  of  his  profes 
sion,  and  his  book,  "  Six  Months  at  the  White  House," 
giving  the  history  of  his  stay  there  while  at  work  on 
his  great  picture,  is  a  singularly  interesting  one.  Mr. 
Carpenter  is  of  middle  height,  rather  slender,  with  dcl- 
licate  features,  abundant  straight  black  hair,  and  dark 
gray  eyes.  His  voice  is  rather  low  and  of  agreeable 
tone ;  and  in  manner  he  is  extremely  quiet,  meditative, 
and  often  apparently  quite  absorbed  in  reflection  or 
revery,  seeming  to  receive  impressions  from  persons  and 
things  around  him  unconsciously,  rather  than  by  keeping 
his  intellect  at  work  to  seize  them ;  in  short,  he  is  a 
gentleman,  and  those  who  know  hiin  best  love  him  most. 


THE   OCCASION.  19 


II. 

THE    OCCASION. 

THE  Emancipation  of  the  Slaves  in  the  United  States 
belongs  to  a  class  of  events  so  lofty  and  so  vast  in 
nature  and  meaning,  that  it  is  an  effort  to  comprehend 
them.  It  has  often  been  said  that  no  single  deed  so 
great  has  been  done  on  earth  since  Christ  was  crucified. 
If  any  can  be  compared  with  it,  they  are  the  very 
greatest :  the  Christianizing  of  the  Roman  Empire  by 
Constantino ;  the  issue  of  Magna  Charta  to  England  ; 
the  inauguration  of  the  Reformation  by  Luther ;  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Indeed,  it  would  be 
easy  to  show  that  it  is  linked  w^ith  these  in  one  chain 
of  cause  and  effect.  The  last  three  of  the  series  are  ob 
viously  so  related.  The  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  the  logical  result  of  the  principles  of  Luther  put 
in  practice  by  English  Puritans,  and  announced  in  their 
political  applications  by  the  descendants  and  successors 
of  those  Puritans,  the  Continental  Congress.  Emanci 
pation  has  made  the  United  States  the  banner-bearer 
of  mankind — the  foremost  nation  in  human  progress — 
just  as  the  Declaration  did  in  1776. 

The  train  of  circumstances  that  preceded  President 
Lincoln's  Proclamation  of  September  22,  1862,  is,  of 
course,  of  great  historical  interest  and  importance. 
The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  in  its  very 
framing  put  together  with  compromises  about  Slavery. 


20  THE   riCTUKK   AND   TIJK   MEN. 

The  first  period  of  the  history  of  this  subject  comes 
down  to  about  the  end  of  the  last  century.  During 
that  period  there  was  much  opposition  to  slaveholding, 
by  men  of  high  moral  nature  and  profound  political 
insight,  all  over  the  country,  and  since  business  interest 
coincided  with  the  moral  duty  of  the  case,  there  was 
decidedly  a  tendency  toward  a  gradual  dying  out  of 
the  system. 

The  second  period  begins  with  that  great  increase 
in  the  production  of  cotton  which  resulted  from  the 
invention  and  use  of  Whitney's  cotton-gin,  dating  from 
about  1793.  This  increase  caused  slaves  to  grow  rap 
idly  more  valuable,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  course  that 
men  desire  to  think,  and  therefore  tend  strongly  to 
think,  that  what  is  very  profitable  must  be  right,  or  at 
least  excusable. 

The  third  period  may  be  reckoned  from  the  begin 
ning  of  the  abolition  movement  of  Mr.  Garrison  and  his 
associates  down  to  the  date  of  the  Proclamation,  in 
which  it  culminated.  The  first  period  was  that  of 
feeble  moral  reprobation  of  slavery ;  the  second,  that 
of  increasing  financial  acquiescence  in  slavery;  the 
third,  that  of  earnest  moral  attack  and  defense  of  slav 
ery,  the  financial  and  political  aspects  of  it  not  being 
now  the  really  predominant  ones. 

In  this  third  period  came  the  successive  excitements 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  "  incendiary  docu 
ment"  and  "  gag-law"  time,  the  "  Political  Abolition" 
time,  the  "Free  Soil"  time,  the  "Kansas"  time,  the 
"  John  Brown"  time,  and  lastly  the  rebellion. 

The  rebellion  was  the,,  effort  of  the  slave  interest  to 
take  a  snap  judgment,  so  to  speak,  on  a  question  which 


THE   OCCASION.  21 

the  country  was  evidently  in  a  steady  advance  toward 
deciding  on  the  side  of  freedom.  And  so  much  organi 
zation  and  preparation  had  the  South,  so  utterly  igno 
rant  of  the  scheme  was  the  North,  so  strong  was  the 
combination  of  a  united  South,  Northern  sympathizers, 
and  European  monarchies,  and  so  undecided  and  dor 
mant  were  the  convictions  of  very  many  even  of  the 
loyal  Northern  men,  that  undoubtedly  the  nation  had 
a  narrow  escape  from  destruction,  winning  in  the  con 
flict  not  merely  nor  even  chiefly  as  the  richest  and 
strongest  of  the  two  warring  powers,  but  by  means  of 
the  strength  of  the  patriotism  and  moral  convictions 
"^hat  germinated  and  grew  vigorously  and  fast  by  the 
stimulus  of  the  very  fire  that  was  kindled  to  consume 
them. 

The  words  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  described  the  occa 
sion  on  which  the  Proclamation  was  planned  and  issued 
have  all  his  striking  and  characteristic  plainness,  sim 
plicity,  directness,  and  graphic  force.  He  said  to  Mr. 
Carpenter,  "  Things  had  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse, 
until  I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on 
the  plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pursuing  ;  that  we 
had  about  played  our  last  card,  and  must  change  our 
tactics,  or  lose  the  game." 

This  time  was  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of  18C2, 
the  period  of  the  discouragement  produced  by  the 
"  Peninsular  campaign."  It  is  true  that  Union  suc 
cesses  had  taken  place  at  several  points  upon  the  outer 
circumference  of  the  rebellion  ;  but  its  main  body  yet 
remained  substantially  untouched,  and  above  all,  its 
mailed  head — consisting  of  the  main  army  under  Lee, 
protected  by  the  strong  and  extremely  defensible  coun- 


22  THE   PICTUKE   AND    THE   MEN. 

try  of  Northern  Virginia — that  mailed  head  which  it 
constantly  thrust  out  at  Washington  and  the  North, 
was  still  full  of  threatening  and  dangerous  life.  Al 
though  the  Government  had  in  the  field  in  the  begin 
ning  of  that  year  more  than  660,000  soldiers,  and  a  navy 
of  246  ships,  22,000  men,  and  1,892  gnns,  no  decisive 
injury  had  yet  been  done  to  the  enemy.  Political 
opponents  at  home  were  raising  an  awful  clamor  about 
the  inefficiency  and  incapacity  of  the  Administration, 
and  a  good  many  even  of  its  friends  were  joining  in 
the  cry.  There  was  a  very  visible  and  growing  weari 
ness  among  the  people,  of  conscriptions,  of  taxes,  of 
the  disordered  currency,  of  the  increasing  prices  of  all 
sorts  of  manufactured  and  imported  commodities.  Mr. 
Greeley  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  it  is  doubtful 
whether  a  popular  vote  on  giving  up  the  fight,  if  taken 
during  the  year  next  after  the  issue  of  the  Proclama 
tion,  would  not  have  been  affirmative.  This  opinion, 
however,  is  probably  shaded  by  its  author's  well-known 
liability  to  look  on  the  dark  side,  for  the  patriotism 
of  Mr.  Greeley  can  not  be  doubted. 

However,  Mr.  Blair  urged  to  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  reason 
against  the  Proclamation,  that  its  issue  would  cause 
the  loss  of  the  fall  elections ;  and,  sure  enough,  it  appa- 
re'ntly  did.  In  ten  States  which  gave  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
1860  more  than  208,000  majority,  the  Administration 
candidates  for  State  offices  were  beaten  in  the  fall  of 
1862  by  nearly  36,000.  This,  however,  was  rather  the 
result  of  the  hesitating  non-emancipation  policy  of  the 
previous  two  years,  and  its  attendant  ill  success,  than  the 
result  of  the  new  emancipation  policy,  only  just  an 
nounced,  and  not  yet  proved  as  an  influence  in  the  war. 


THE   OCCASION.  23 

It  was  the  result  of  the  old  mistakes,  not  of  the  new 
correction.  As  soon  as  the  new  policy  was  well  under 
stood,  and  began  to  show  its  operation,  there  was  no 
more  fear  of  losing  elections  by  it.  It  became  the  policy 
of  the  nation,  and  ceased  to  be  a  party  question,  just  as 
the  support  of  the  Government  had  ceased  to  be  a  party 
question  ever  since  Sumter  was  attacked. 

Assuredly  the  people  of  the  United  States  waited 
long  enough  before  resolving  upon  universal  freedom. 
Most  undoubtedly  the  Proclamation  was  made  at  the 
right  time  to  take  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  with  it. 
Any  time  would  have  been  too  late  for  extremists  on 
one  side,  and  too  early  for  extremists  on  the  other. 
But  the  deeds  of  Mr.  Lincoln  were  the  resolutions  of 
the  loyal  people  as  a  whole,  and  his  course  was  with  a 
sort  of  magnetic  truth  what  they  felt  to  be  best. 

It  was  therefore  really  the  people  who  did  the  acts 
which  the  President  superintended,  as  their  chief 
manager.  Even  after  the  war  broke  out,  it  took  nearly 
two  years  to  bring  the  people  into  the  conviction  that 
emancipation  must  come — that  this  vast  moral  justice 
was  absolutely  indispensable,  alike  to  free  the  Xorth 
from  its  false  position  and  to  put  the  South  in  its  true 
one — to  unite  and  strengthen  the  right  side  and  to 
cripple  the  wrong.  Accordingly,  the  war  had  com 
menced  with  the  most  circumspect  and  systematic 
observance  of  "  conservative"  precedent  in  this  matter, 
and  went  on  for  a  long  time  in  a  manner  which,  so  far 
as  slavery  was  concerned,  "  could  not  offend  the  feel 
ings  of  the  most  fastidious"  slaveholder.  So  cautious 
and  conservative  a  statesman  as  Edward  Everett  as 
serted  that  it  was  matter  of  grave  doubt  "  whether 


24  THE   PICTURE  AND   THE   MEN. 

any  act  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  was 
necessary  to  liberate  the  slaves  in  a  State  which  is  in 
open  rebellion."  Prophetic  minds  felt  from  the  very 
first  gun  that  the  day  of  universal  freedom  was  at 
hand.  But  prophetic  minds  arc  few  ;  national  convic 
tions  and  sentiments  change  very  gradually ;  and 
before  emancipation  could  be  safely  made  the  law,  an 
underpinning  of  public  opinion  had  to  be  slowly  laid 
for  it,  even  though  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars 
were  expended  in  the  building,  and  though  the  struc 
ture  was  cemented  and  soaked  in  the*  blood  of  our 
bravest  men.  In  the  United  States,  no  law  will  ope 
rate  which  public  opinion  does  not  support.  This  is 
true,  no  matter  whether  such  law  be  right  or  wrong, 
It  is  a  fundamental  fact  in  democracies.  It  has  been 
proved  over  and  over  in  laws  on  the  liquor  question, 
and  perhaps  an  understanding  of  this  may  have  influ 
enced  the  President's  delay  in  the  matter.  However 
that  may  be,  Mr.  Lincoln,  while  personally  profoundly 
anxious  for  universal  freedom,  was  utterly  immovable 
in  the  resolution  to  maintain  the  national  existence 
within  undoubted  constitutional  forms  if  possible — and 
persisted  in  this  course,  until,  as  he  said,  its  last  card 
had  been  played.  This  is  most  strongly  shown  in  his 
letter  to  Mr.  Greeley  of  Aug.  22,  1862,  a  remarkably 
terse  and  forcible  statement  in  every  possible  variation 
of  assertion,  of  this  object.  "My  paramount  object,"  he 
said,  "  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  not  cither  to  save  or 
to  destroy  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without 
freeing  any  slaves,  I  would  do  it — if  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it — and  if  I  could  do 
it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also 


THE   OCCASION.  25 

do  that."  Mr.  Seward  took  it  for  granted  that  the  war 
would  not  touch  the  slavery  question  at  all.  In  his 
dispatch  to  Minister  Dayton,  of  April  22d,  1861,  he 
said,  with  mistaken  prediction,  "  The  condition  of  slav 
ery  in  the  several  States  will  remain  just  the  same, 
whether  it  (the  rebellion)  succeed  or  fail."  The  mani 
festo  of  Gen.  McDowell  on  his  first  entry  into  Vir 
ginia,  in  July,  1861,  contained  nothing  that  showed 
whether  or  not  such  a  thing  as  slavery  existed.  Mc- 
Clellan's  proclamation  in  West  Virginia  of  May  26, 
1861,  had  before  announced  that  he  would  "subdue 
slave  insurrection  with  an  iron  hand."  Gen.  T.  W. 
Sherman,  after  the  victory  at  Port  Royal,  expressly  dis 
claimed  any  intention  of  meddling  with  slavery.  Gen. 
Dix,  in  occupying  the  Eastern  Shore  counties  of  Vir 
ginia,  did  the  like,  and  shut  his  lines  to  fugitives  from 
slavery ;  Gen.  Halleck,  on  succeeding  Fremont  in  Mis 
souri,  did  the  like,  and,  moreover,  expelled  from  the 
protection  of  his  lines  such  fugitives  as  had  already 
taken  refuge  there.  Gen.  Burnside  published  a  similar 
disclaimer  on  occupying  Roanoke  Island;  Gen.  Buell 
in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  Gen.  Hooker  on  the  upper 
Potomac,  Gen.  Williams  in  Louisiana,  did  the  like,  and 
still  further,  they  opened  their  camps  to  slave-catchers, 
and  officially  helped  them,  by  ordering  the  surrender 
of  fugitives,  and  even  by  furnishing  detachments  or 
details  to  assist  in  the  chase.  Fremont's  proclamation 
of  freedom  in  Missouri  was  at  once  modified  within 
the  statutory  limits;  Hunter's  in  South  Carolina  was 
promptly  annulled ;  Phelps'  at  Ship  Island  would  have 
been,  had  not  circumstances  rendered  it  unnecessary. 
Never  since  the  creation  of  the  world  was  there  seen 


2G  THE   PICTURE    AND   THE   MEN. 

any  war  before,  conducted  by  the  year  together,  on  the 
avowed  principle  and  in  the  diligent  and  effective  prac 
tice  of  not  touching  the  greatest  source  of  the  enemy's 
strength,  of  assuring  him  the  full  enjoyment  of  it,  of 
carefully  returning  to  him  any  of  it  that  got  away,  and 
of  helping  him  chase  it  right  through  the  very  ranks  of 
the  extra-magnanimous  belligerents.  It  was  exerting  our 
whole  force  to  protect  the  enemy's  powder-magazine. 

Even  when  the  course  of  events  gradually  forced  the 
nation  from  this  strange  method  of  making  war  by 
guaranteeing  the  enemy,  the  change  was  made  very 
slowly  and  gradually.  Officers  commanding  in  one 
and  another  locality  found  it  a  physical  impossibility 
to  dispense  with  the  services  of  the  negroes,  and  a 
moral  impossibility  to  treat  them  otherwise  than  as 
men  and  freemen.  Such  cases  multiplied  in  number 
and  grew  in  importance  for  months  and  months,  and  a 
series  of  partial  measures,  dealing  with  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  or  with  slaves  as  contraband  of 
wTar,  or  as  subject  to  confiscation,  or  as  fit  material  for 
enlistment,  had  successively  tested  the  public  sentiment 
of  the  country  for  a  long  time  before  the  cautious 
President  could  determine  that  the  hour  was  come  for 
proclaiming  "liberty  throughout  all  the  land."  At 
last,  however,  it  was  time.  With  true  instinct,  the 
man  of  the  people  felt  that  the  will  of  the  people  was 
ripe  for  the  new  policy.  The  furious  battles  of  South 
Mountain  and  Antietam,  and  the  subsequent  retreat  of 
Lee,  beaten  and  driven  over  the  Potomac  from  his  first 
invasion  of  Maryland,  constituted  a  turn  in  the  tide  of 
affairs  which  enabled  the  Proclamation  to  appear  in 
victory  instead  of  defeat. 


THE    OCCASION.  27 

As  prompt  at  snatching  ,111  occasion  as  he  was  slow 
in  maturing  the  purpose  to  be  served,  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
stantly  published  the  grandest  utterance  of  the  age. 
It  was  not,  it  is  true,  an  unconditional  assertion  either  of 
the  rights  of  man,  or  of  the  freedom  of  any  class  of  men. 
In  fact,  as  it  was  worded,  it  gave  the  rebels  an  oppor 
tunity  of  retaining  the  system  of  slavery  in  every 
Southern  State ;  for  ifc  was  not  in  itself  a  gift  of  eman 
cipation,  but  only  contingent  notice  of  emancipation  at 
one  hundred  days.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  wish  to  seem 
to  do  a  great  action  himself,  nor  to  put  forth  any  im 
pressive  phrases.  It  is  a  feature  most  characteristic 
of  his  simple,  weighty,  honest,  unconscious,  straight 
forward  nature,  that  in  this  great  state  paper,  announc 
ing  a  radical  change  in  the  social  and  political  policy 
of  the  strongest  nation  in  the  world,  relieving  the  fore 
most  people  on  earth  from  a  social  blot  and  blunder 
which  would  have  disgraced  and  hampered  the  hind 
most,  admitting  four  millions  of  chattels  personal  into 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  completing  for  the  first 
time  the  exemplification  of  Christian  morals  in  the 
legal  action  of  a  democracy — that  in  doing  all  this,  he 
so  did  it  a^  to  seem  not  to  do  it;  as  to  allow  it  to  hap 
pen,  not  at  once,  by  the  force  of  an  actual  fiat,  but  after 
three  months,  in  the  form  of  the  obligatory  fulfillment 
of  a  past  promise ;  and  even  then,  not  by  any  act  of 
his,  or  even  of  the  nation,  but  simply  by  the  neglect  of 
the  persons  addressed  to  perform  the  plainest  duties  of 
the  citizen.  For  the  reader  of  the  Proclamation  will 
see  at  once  how  entirely  it  throws  the  responsibility 
of  the  act  upon  the  South.  If  the  Southern  States  had 
discontinued  their  rebellious  organization  and  resumed 


28  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

their  places  in  Congress  within  the  hundred  days,  the 
nation  would  have  been  bound  to  accept  such  action 
and  appearance  as  a  reparation  in  lull,  and  to  have 
suffered  the  whole  fabric  of  slavery  to  remain  as  before, 
not  merely  upheld  by  the  laws  of  each  State  and  the 
entire  frame  of  Southern  society,  but,  as  before  the 
war,  by  the  acquiescence  and  moral  support  of  the 
whole  United  States.  Doubtless,  Mr.  Lincoln  may 
have  felt  that  there  was  in  fact  no  danger  of  such  sub 
mission  and  return  ;  but  the  absolute  disinterestedness, 
profound  caution,  sagacious  foreseeing  statesmanship, 
and  lawyer-like  clearness,  accuracy,  and  safety  of  the 
drafting  of  the  paper  are  none  the  less  wonderful  for 
that.  The  Proclamation  does  not  say  one  word  nor  do 
one  thing  not  absolutely  necessary  ;  it  neither  discusses 
a  principle,  nor  argues  a  case,  nor  expresses  a  feeling. 
It  does  not  even  put  forth  its  real  and  vast  significance 
directly  ;  much  less  with  ornaments  of  speech  or  large 
ness  of  words.  It  is  the  barest,  briefest  notice  to  legal 
delinquents  to  return  to  duty,  with  a  proviso  of  further 
action  if  they  do  not  return.  It  is  so  arranged,  that  if 
there  be  a  chance  not  to  secure  emancipation,  the 
chance  shall  be  taken  ;  that  if  the  crowning  glory  of 
the  century  can  be  avoided,  it  shall  be  avoided  ;  that 
if  the  signer  can  escape  the  credit  of  freeing  four  mil 
lions  of  slaves,  he  shall  escape  it ;  that  if  the  South  can 
be  induced  to  retain  their  labor  system,  they  shall  re 
tain  it ;  that  if  the  actual  responsibility  of  freedom  is  to 
rest  anywhere,  it  shall  rest  upon  the  rebel  slaveholders 
themselves.  It  embodies  the  utter  abnegation  of  per 
sonal  merit  or  emotion  ;  the  entire  avoidance  of  contro 
versy  upon  cither  any  principle  in  doctrine  or  any 


TDE   OCCASION.  29 

material  interest  or  association  of  human  "beings;  it  is 
the  simple,  plain  statement  of  one  future  fact,  unless 
there  shall  happen  another  future  fact.  And  notwith 
standing  all  this  guarded  negation  of  statement  and 
conditional  assertion,  yet  such  \vere  the  aspects  of  the 
war  in  the  field,  and  of  the  public  opinion  of  the  North, 
that  these  two  gigantic  forces,  embodying  the  moral 
sum  total  of  the  United  States  for  the  time  being,  in 
spired  into  the  words  of  this  plain  short  paper  that 
whole  and  complete  and  immense  meaning  which  lias 
rendered  it  immortal. 


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32  THE   PICTURE   AND    THE   MEN. 


III. 

THE    PICTURE. 

THE  original  conception  of  Mr.  Carpenter's  great 
picture  is  due  to  his  profound  loyalty  to  the  United 
States,  his  fervent  devotion  to  Freedom,  his  deep  exul 
tation  when  the  issue  of  the  Great  Proclamation  an 
nounced  that  Slavery  was  Abolished,  his  strong  desire 
to  execute  some  work  within  the  field  of  his  art  which 
should  express  his  appreciation  of  the  questions  of  the 
war,  and  the  nation's  action  upon  them,  and  his  hon 
orable  ambition  to  associate  his  own  name  and  reputa 
tion  with  an  occasion  so  glorious.  The  artist  thus  de 
scribes  his  own  first  clear  conception  of  the  time  and 
sentiment  of  his  picture,  in  his  "Six  Mouths  at  the 
White  House :" 

"  The  long-prayed-for  year  of  jubilee  had  come ;  the 
bonds  of  the  oppressed  were  loosed ;  the  prison  doors 
were  opened.  '  Behold,'  said  a  voice,  '  how  a  man 
may  be  exalted  to  a  dignity  and  glory  almost  divine, 
and  give  freedom  to  a  race !  Surely  Art  should  unite 
with  Eloquence  and  Poetry  to  celebrate  such  a  theme.' 
I  conceived  of  that  band  of  men  upon  whom  the  eyes 
of  the  world  centred  as  never  before  upon  ministers  of 
state,  gathered  in  council,  depressed,  perhaps  disheart 
ened  at  the  vain  efforts  of  many  months  to  restore  the 
supremacy  of  the  Government.  I  saw,  in  thought,  the 
head  of  the  nation,  bowed  down  with  his  weight  -of 


THE   PICTURE.  33 

care  and  responsibility,  solemnly  announcing,  as  he  un 
folded  the  prepared  draft  of  the  Proclamation,  that  the 
time  for  the  inauguration  of  this  policy  had  arrived  ;  I 
endeavored  to  imagine  the  conflicting  emotions  of  satis 
faction,  doubt,  and  distrust  with  which  such  *  an  an 
nouncement  would  be  received  by  men  of  the  varied 
characteristics  of  the  assembled  councilors." 

This  was  in  the  end  of  the  year  1863,  the  first  day  of 
which  had  witnessed  the  issuing  of  the  Supplemen 
tary  Proclamation  announcing  the  fulfillment  of  the 
promise.  For  some  weeks  the  painter,  after  his  man 
ner,  brooded  silently  over  his  design.  Gradually 
the  group  assumed  in  his  imagination  such  a  form  and 
arrangement  as  satisfied  his  conception  of  what  the 
assembly  must  have  been.  Mr.  Carpenter  is  not  with, 
out  a  decided  tendency  toward  those  lofty  realms  of 
human  aspiration  and  emotional  thought,  the  mystical 
and  the  supernatural ;  and  he  records  a  coincidence  in 
the  matter  of  adjusting  his  design  which  is  sufficiently 
striking.  "In  seeking  a  point  of  unity  or  action  for 
the  picture,"  lie  says,  "  I  was  impressed  with  the  con 
viction  that  important  modifications  followed  the  read 
ing  of  the  Proclamation  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  and  I  determined  upon  such  an  incident 
as  the  moment  of  time  to  be  represented.  I  was  sub 
sequently  surprised  and  gratified  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
himself,  reciting  the  history  of  the  Proclamation  to  me, 
dwelt  particularly  upon  the  fact,  that  not  only  was  the 
time  of  its  issue  decided  by  Secretary  Seward's  advice, 
but  that  one  of  the  most  important  Avords  in  the  docu 
ment  was  added  through  his  strenuous  representa 
tions." 


34:  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

The  design  thus  determined,  it  remained  to  execute 
it,  and  Mr.  Carpenter  first  consulted  Mr.  Samuel  Sin 
clair,  now  publisher  of  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  upon  the 
means  of  interesting  in  the  scheme  Messrs.  Schuyler 
Colfax-and  Owen  Lovejoy,  who  should,  in  their  turn, 
influence  their  personal  and  political  friend  the  Presi 
dent.  This  shrewd  little  piece  of  wire-pulling  succeed 
ed,  for  Mr.  Sinclair,  being  the  very  next  week  in  Wash 
ington,  went  with  Mr.  Colfax  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  explained 
the  plan,  and  without  much  difficulty  obtained  his  assent. 

The  road  was  now  clear  for  the  execution  of  the  am 
bitious  scheme  of  the  artist ;  but  how  was  he  to  travel 
in  it  ?  "  Who  goeth  a  warfare  any  time  at  his  own 
charges  ?" — and  besides,  he  had  not  the  means  for  such 
unscriptural  expenditure,  even  were  he  so  anti-biblical 
as  to  make  it.  A  second  coincidence  attended  the 
solution  of  the  difficulty.  He  left  home  one  morning, 
pondering  deeply  upon  the  financial  lion  in  his  path ; 
and  contriving  and  rejecting,  with  increasing  discour 
agement,  one  expedient  after  another,  he  reached  the 
door  of  the  building  where  his  studio  was  established, 
and  was  about  to  enter.  At  that  moment  he  happened 
to  observe  a  gentleman  who  was  intently  examining 
some  pictures  in  a  shop"  window.  Something  familiar 
in  the  air  of  the  figure  attracted  the  artist,  and  when 
in  a  few  moments  the  gazer  turned  round,  it  proved  to 
be  Frederick  A.  Lane,  Esq.,  an  old  acquaintance  who, 
five  years  before,  had  lived  near  Mr.  Carpenter  in 
Brooklyn,  and,  like  him,  had  at  that  time  been  strug 
gling  hard  for  a  living,  though  in  the  dry  path  of  law, 
instead  of  the  supposed  more  flowery  ways  of  Art. 

Mr.   Carpenter  asked  Mr.  Lane  up  into  his  studio, 


THE    riCTUKE.  35 

and  there  was  some  comparing  of  old  reminiscences 
and  late  experiences.  The  lawyer  had  prospered  in 
business  and  in  purse ;  the  artist  was  still  poor.  Sud 
denly  the  sensitive  painter  was  stirred  with  the  thought 
that  this  meeting  was  "  providential."  A  less  sponta 
neous  man  would  have  reckoned  this  a  mere  conceit, 
and  would  have  reasoned  away  from  it.  But  the  men 
tal  constitution  of  an  artist  has  often  much  of  the  same 
quickness  of  intuition  and  instinctive  reliance  upon  it, 
which  is  usually  attributed  to  women.  Mr.  Carpen 
ter  at  once  briefly  laid  before  his  visitor  his  whole 
scheme.  Mr.  Lane  quietly  heard  him  through.  "  Are 
you  sure  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  consent  and  co-operation  ?" 
he  asked.  The  painter  told  him  of  the  promise  which 
Messrs.  Sinclair  and  Colfax  had  received.  "  Then,"  said 
this  liberal  friend,  "  you  shall  paint  the  picture.  Take 
plenty  of  time.  Make  it  the  great  work  of  your  life  ; 
and  draw  upon  me  for  whatever  funds  you  will  require 
to  the  end." 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1864,  Mr.  Carpenter  went 
to  Washington,  and  calling  next  day  upon  Hon.  Owen 
Lovejoy,  obtained  a  note  of  introduction  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 
After  waiting  in  vain  for  two  days  for  an  opportunity 
to  present  it,  the  artist  at  last  went  up  to  the  White 
House  on  the  afternoon  of  Saturday,  and  taking  his 
place  in  what  the  French  call  the  "  tail"  of  citizens  who 
were  filing  past  the  patient  President,  each  shaking 
hands  and  uttering  some  observation  as  they  went, 
like  so  many  customers  popping  their  letters  into  some 
crowded  post-office  window,  he  took  his  turn,  and  was 
named  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  After  a  moment's  recollection, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "O  yes,  I  know — this  is  the  painter;" 


36  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

and  ^  standing  up  as  tall  as  he  could — which  was  much 
— he  added,  with  a  queer  look,  "  Do  you  think,  Mr. 
Carpenter,  that  you  can  make  a  handsome  picture  of 
me  ?"  The  painter  w^as  taken  aback  at  this  very  direct 
query,  and  too  polite  to  say  No,  and  too  honest  to  say 
Yes,  he  answered  at  random,  coming,  however,  enough 
to  the  point  to  ask  if  he  could  have  a  private  interview 
after  the  reception.  "  I  reckon  !"  was  the  reply  of  the 
Executive,  as  he  went  gravely  on  again  with  his  pump- 
handling. 

When  this  tiresome  ceremony  was.  over,  the  painter 
was  admitted  to  the  President's  office,  where  Mr.  Lin 
coln  was  already  hard  at  work  signing  acts  of  Con 
gress.  He  gave  his  visitor  a  seat,  and  received  and  read 
Mr.  Lovejoy's  note  of  introduction.  Then,  taking  off  his 
spectacles,  he  turned  to  the  artist  and  said,  in  his  char 
acteristic  way,  "  Well,  Mr.  Carpenter,  we  will  turn  you 
in  loose  here" — as  if  the  painter  were  a  harmless  sort 
of  beast,  safe  in  pasture  without  "  poke"  or  "  hobbling" 
— "  and  try  to  give  you-  a  good  chance  to  work  out 
your  idea."  It  is  curious  to  consider  how  many  of  the 
rulers  of  the  earth  would  have  thus  assented  to  an 
artist's  proposal  for  a  great  historical  picture  of  one  of 
the  turning-points  in  human  progress,  in  a  sentence  of 
twenty-one  words  (not  counting  the  name  of  the  per 
son  spoken  to),  all  monosyllables  but  one,  and  express 
ing  their  thought  with  a  metaphor  accurate,  forcible, 
a*nd  taken  from  the  pasture  and  the  oxen. 

The  enthusiastic  artist  began  to  express  as  well  as 
he  could,  one  or  another  lofty  idea  of  his  intended 
work.  The  President  paid  little  attention  to  this,  but 
after  his  fashion  went  straight  to  the  root  of  the  matter 


THE   PICTURE.  37 

and  proceeded  to  give  his  auditor  a  history  of  the  cir 
cumstances.  "We  transcribe  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  words 
as  given  by  Mr.  Carpenter.* 

"It  had  got  to  be  midsummer,  1862.  Things  had 
gone  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  I  felt  that  we  had 
reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the  plan  of  operations 
we  had  been  pursuing ;  that  we  had  about  played  our 
last  card,  and  must  change  our  tactics,  or  lose  the 
game.  I  now  determined  upon  the  adoption  of  the 
emancipation  policy;  and  without  consultation  with 
or  the  knowledge  of  the  Cabinet,  I  prepared  the  origi 
nal  draft  of  the  proclamation,  and,  after  much  anxious 
thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meeting  upon  the  subject. 
This  was  the  last  of  July,  or  the  first  part  of  August, 
1862.  This  Cabinet  meeting  took  place  upon  a  Satur 
day.  All  were  present,  excepting  Mr.  Blair,  the  post 
master-general,  who  was  absent  at  the  opening  of  the 
discussion,  but  came  in  subsequently.  I  said  to  the 
Cabinet  that  I  had  resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had 
not  called  them  together  to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay 
the  subject-matter  of  a  proclamation  before  them  ;  sug 
gestions  as  to  which  would  be  in  order  after  they  had 
heard  it  read.  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  in  error  when  he  in 
formed  you  [viz.,  Mr.  Carpenter,  at  a  previous  time] 
that  it  excited  no  comment,  excepting  on  the  part  of 
Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions  were  offered. 
Secretary  Chase  wished  the  language  stronger  in  refer 
ence  to  the  arming  of  the  blacks ;  Mr.  Blair,  after  he 
came  in,  deprecated  the  policy  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  cost  the  Administration  the  fall  elections. 

*  Six  Months  at  the  White  House,  pp.  20,  21,  22. 


38  THE   PICTUKE  AND   THE  MEN. 

Nothing,  however,  was  offered  that  I  had  not  fully- 
anticipated  and  settled  in  my  own  mind,  until  Secretary 
Seward  spoke.  He  said  in  substance  :  '  Mr.  President, 
I  approve  of  the  proclamation,  but  I  question  the  expe 
diency  of  its  issue  at  this  juncture.  The  depression  of 
the  public  mind,  consequent  upon  our  repeated  reverses, 
is  so  great  that  I  fear  the  effect  of  so  important  a  step. 
It  may  be  viewed  as  the  last  measure  of  an  exhausted 
government ;  a  cry  for  help  ;  the  government  stretch 
ing  forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia 
stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  Government.'  His 
idea  was,  that  it  would  be  considered  our  last  shriek  on 
the  retreat.  '  Now,'  continued  Mr.  Seward,  *  while  I 
approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you  postpone 
its  issue  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country  supported 
by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it,  as  would  be 
the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters  of  the  war.' 
The  wisdom  of  the  view  of  the  Secretary  of  State 
struck  me  with  very  great  force.  It  was  an  aspect  of 
the  case  that,  in  all  my  thought  upon  the  subject,  I 
had  entirely  overlooked.  The  result  was  that  I  put 
the  proclamation  aside,  as  you  do  your  sketch  for  a 
picture,  waiting  for  a  victory.  From  time  to  time  I 
added  or  changed  a  line,  touching  it  up  here  and  there, 
anxiously  watching  the  progress  of  events.  "Well,  the 
next  news  we  had  was  of  Pope's  disaster  at  Bull  Hun. 
Things  looked  darker  than  ever.  Finally  came  the 
week  of  the  battle  of  Antietam.  I  determined  to  wait 
no  longer.  The  news  came,  I  think,  on  "Wednesday, 
that  the  advantage  was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  stay 
ing  at  the  Soldiers'  Home.  Here  I  finished  writing  the 
second  draft  of  the  preliminary  proclamation ;  came  up 


THE   PICTURE.  39 

on  Saturday;  called  the  Cabinet  together  to  hear  it, 
and  it  was  published  the  following  "Monday." 

At  the  final  meeting  of  September  20th,  another  in 
teresting  incident  occurred  in  connection  with  Secretary 
Seward.  The  President  had  written  the  important  part 
of  the  proclamation  in  these  words  : 

"  That,  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated 
part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thence 
forward,  and  forever  FREE  ;  and  the  Executive  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and 
naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  the  freedom  of 
such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such 
persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make 
for  their  actual  freedom."  "  When  I  finished  reading 
this  paragraph,"  resumed  Mr.  Lincoln,  "Mr.  Seward 
stopped  me,  and  said,  *  I  think,  Mr.  President,  that  you 
should  insert  after  the  word  " recognize"  in  that  sen 
tence,  the  words  " and  maintain"  7  " I  replied  that  I 
had  already  fully  considered  the  import  of  that  expres 
sion  in  this  connection,  but  I  had  not  introduced  it,  be 
cause  it  was  not  my  way  to  promise  what  I  was  not 
entirely  sure  that  I  could  perform,  and  I  was  not  pre 
pared  to  say  that  I  thought  we  were  exactly  able  to 
*  maintain'  this." 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  Seward  insisted  that  we  ought  to 
take  this  ground ;  and  the  words  finally  went  in  !" 

Mr.  Lincoln,  having  finished  this  account,  explained 
in  detail  how  the  Cabinet  and  he  were  grouped  at 
that  meeting ;  and  when  the  artist  showed  the  Presi- 


40  THE    PICTURE    AND   THE   MEN. 

dent  a  pencil  sketch  of  the  picture  as  he  had  already 
planned  it,  it  was  found  altogether  in  accordance  with 
the  facts,  except  that  the  whole  composition  had  to  be 
turned  end  for  end,  in  order  to  put  Mr.  Lincoln  at  the 
right  place,  by  the  table. 

The  remaining  necessary  details  of  sketching  were 
now  promptly  completed ;  the  painter's  easel  was  set 
up  in  the  library,  but  shortly  removed  to  the  state 
dining-room,  where  the  work  was  finished.  The  painter 
was  in  good  earnest  "  turned  in  loose,"  for  he  was, 
during  the  succeeding  six  months,  on  terms  almost  as 
intimate  with  Mr.  Lincoln  as  were  the  President's  own 
private  secretaries.  He  went  and  came  at  pleasure, 
sat  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  private  office  while  confidential 
business  was  transacting,  and  when  any  one  looked 
suspiciously  toward  him,  the  President  would  say, 
"  Oh,  you  needn't  mind  him — he  is  a  painter."  From 
time  to  time  the  President  and  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet  gave  sittings  for  their  respective  portraits, 
chatting  easily  and  freely  with  -the  companionable 
artist  on  all  manner  of  topics,  and  exchanging  all  sorts 
of  reminiscences,  stories,  reasonings,  and  opinions. 
Frequently  visitors  at  the  White  House  came  to  ob 
serve  the  progress  of  the  great  picture  ;  at  other  times 
friends  of  the  artist,  sometimes  brought  in  by  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

The  industry  of  the  artist  was  unfailing  and  ardent. 
His  relaxation  even  was  part  of  his  work,  for  it  con 
sisted  almost  entirely  of  cultivating  a  more  perfect 
acquaintance  with  the*  men  whom  he  was  to  paint.  All 
day  he  worked  at  his  designing,  sketching,  or  paint 
ing,  and  all  day  was  not  enough.  When  night  fell,  he 


TIIIC   PICT  CUE.  41 

lighted  up  the  great  chandelier  of  the  room,  and  often 
labored  straight  onward,  unconscious  of  the  passage  of 
time,  until  the  morning  light  found  him  still  brush  in 
hand  before  the  immense  canvas,  and  drove  him  away 
by  spoiling  the  tone  of  the  gas-light. 

At  the  end  of  a  half  year  the  work  was  complet 
ed,  and  the  President  and  Cabinet,  at  the  close  of  a 
business  session,  adjourned  to  the  temporary  studio, 
to  hold  a  formal  critical  session  upon  the  great  pic 
ture.  Sitting  in  the  midst  of  his  chief  assistants,  Mr. 
Lincoln  pronounced  what  he  called  his  "  unschooled" 
opinion  of  the  work,  in  words  which  Mr.  Carpenter 
has  not  put  on  record,  but  which,  he  says,  "  could  not 
but  have  afforded  the  deepest  gratification  to  any 
artist."  For  two  days  before  being  removed,  the 
picture  was  now  exhibited  freely  to  the  public,  in  the 
East  Room,  several  thousands  of  persons  crowding  in 
to  see  it  on  each  day.  On  the  last  afternoon,  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  painter  went  together  to  have  a  last  look 
at  the  work  before  it  was  rolled  up  for  removal.  Mr. 
Lincoln  sat  down  before  the  picture  and  gazed  silently 
at  it.  Mr.  Carpenter  remarked  that  he  had  worked  out 
his  idea,  and  asked  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  final  suggestions 
and  criticism.  "  There  is  little  to  find  fault  with,"  was 
the  reply ;  "  the  portraiture  is  the  main  thing,  and  that 
seems  to  me  absolutely  perfect."  They  discussed  the 
various  accessories :  the  war  maps,  the  portfolios,  the 
map  showing  the  distribution  of  slaves  in  the  South, 
the  book  leaning  against  the  leg  of  the  chair,  which 
was  painted  as  if  bound  in  "lawcal'f."  The  title  placed 
upon  this  was  that  of  a  work  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
used  in  preparing  his  proclamation — Whiting's  "  War 


42  THE   PICTUKE   AND   THE   MEN. 

Powers  of  the  President," — and  this  not  being  a  law 
book,  the  President  requested  that  the  coloring  of  the 
cover  be  changed  accordingly.  "  Is  there  anything 
else  that  you  would  like  changed  or  added  ?"  asked 
the  painter.  "  No,"  was  the  reply,  and  the  President 
continued,  repeating  the  very  expression  which  he  had 
used  on  examining  the  first  sketch,  "  It  is  as  good  as  it 
can  be  made." 

The  painter  took  the  opportunity  to  describe  the 
enthusiastic  feelings  with  which  he  had  first  thought  of 
the  picture,  and  in  which  he  had  labored  upon  it,  and 
to  thank  Mr.  Lincoln  for  his  constant  kindness  in  all 
their  intercourse.  Mr.  Carpenter  adds,  "  He  listened 
pensively — almost  passively,  to  me — his  eyes  fastened 
upon  the  picture.  As  I  finished,  he  turned,  and  in  his 
simple-hearted,  earnest  way  said,  '  Carpenter,  I  believe 
I  am  about  as  glad  over  the  success  of  this  work  as  you 
are.'  And  with  these  words  in  my  ear,  and  a  cordial 
'  good-bye'  grasp  of  the  hand,  President  and  painter 
separated." 

A  single  incident  in  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
picture  may  be  mentioned  here,  which  has  the  interest 
that  always  attaches  to  premonitions  and  signs,  and 
illustrates  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal  popularity.  Mr. 
Carpenter's  picture  was  exhibited  in  the  Rotunda  of 
the  Capitol  during  a  few  days  just  before  Mr.  Lincoln's 
second  inauguration,  and  while  it  was  being  secured  in 
its  place,  a  number  of  persons  were  looking  at  it,  among 
whom  was  a  policeman  of  the  Capitol  squad.  All  at 
once  a  stray  sunbeam  glanced  through  the  dome  and 
settled  full  upon  the  face  of  the  portrait  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
the  rest  of  the  picture  remaining  in  shadow.  It  was  a 


THE   PICTURE.  43 

startling  effect.  The  policeman  pointed  to  it,  exclaim 
ing,  "  Look  !  that  is  as  it  should  be.  God  bless  him  ! 
may  the  sun  shine  on  his  head  forever !" 

Mr.  Carpenter's  great  picture,  of  whose  conception 
and  execution  the  foregoing  is  a  brief  account,  repre 
sents  the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Lincoln  grouped  around  their 
chief  as  they  stood  or  sat  when  he  read  the  Proclama 
tion  to  them.  It  shows  their  ordinary  costume  and 
their  manner  of  carrying  themselves  ;  and  the  table,  the 
chairs,  the  room  and  all  its  fittings  and  furniture  of 
every  kind,  are  represented  without  ornament  or  addi 
tion,  exactly  as  they  were  at  the  time.  The  artist's 
friends  frequently  told  him  that  his  picture  would  look 
barren  and  commonplace  unless  he  put  in  some  urns, 
pillars,  curtains,  tassels,  velvet  table-cloths,  American 
eagles,  banners  of  our  country,  geniuses  of  liberty,  or 
other  unmeaning  symbols  not  there ;  but  he  as  often  re 
plied,  with  great  good  sense  a«d  correct  feeling,  that  he 
would  rather  fail,  while  on  the  side  of  truth,  by  painting 
the  scene  as  it  actually  was,  than  to  succeed  by  doing 
what  would  be  actual  falsehood.  He  justly  felt  that 
he  had  no  more  right  to  vary  from  the  facts  in  the  case, 
than  a  rebel  historian  would  have  to  assert  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  assassinated  J.  Wilkes  Booth.  The  interest  of 
the  scene,  the  truthfulness  of  its  representation — these 
were  the  only  means  which  he  chose  to  use  for  produc 
ing  an  impression,  and  in  thus  choosing  he  was*  true  to 
his  own  principles  and  to  those  of  real  Art.  "  Art,"  to 
use  Mr.  Carpenter's  own  words,  "  should  aim  to  em 
body  and  express  the  spirit  and  best  thought  of  its  own 
age."  To  this  end,  when  men  and  their  actions  are 
painted,  the  men  should  be  delineated,  clothed,  placed, 


4-J:  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

and  circumstanced  as  they  actually  were ;  not  as  the 
painter  may  fancy  it  most  impressive  to  imagine  them. 
Greenough's  statue  of  Washington,  in  the  Capitol 
grounds,  which  Attorney-General  Bates  called  "  a  very 
good  representation  of  Jupiter  Tonans,"  is  a  terrible 
instance  of  the  opposite  of  Mr.  Carpenter's  idea.  This 
statue  represents  the  Father  of  his  Country  seated  in 
the  open  air,  and  clothed  in  a  sheet  swathed  round  him 
so  as  to  leave  him  naked,  or  nearly  so,  from  about  the 
waist  upward — a  costume  in  which  General  Washing 
ton  never  appeared  in  public.  To  put  our  first  Presi 
dent  into  a  garb  which  was  an  imaginary  one  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  is  exactly  such  a  blunder,  only  the 
other  end  foremost,  as  that  which  a  Dutch  painter  com 
mitted  in  painting  Abraham  on  Mount  Moriah,  draw 
ing  a  fine  bead  on  Isaac  with  a  horse-pistol,  for  the 
purpose  of  sacrificing  him.  Mr.  Carpenter  had  too 
much  sense  and  tact  to  fall  into  any  such  errors  of  time, 
or  errors  of  association  either ;  and  the  very  simplicity 
and  plainness  of  the  furniture  and  fittings  in  his  picture 
constitute  an  important  part  of  its  value,  because  they 
are  an  important  part  of  its  truth.  A  century  from 
this  time  it  will  be  very  interesting  to  know  that  thus 
these  men  were  dressed,  and  thus  was  their  council 
held,  and  their  council-room  furnished.  But  a  fluted 
pillar,  a  red  curtain,  an  immense  vase,  could  have  in 
such  a  place  no  meaning,  purpose,  or  interest  what 
ever,  except  to  show  the  shallowness,  ignorance,  and 
conventionality  of  the  artist. 

The  arrangement  of  the  persons  in  this  picture  was 
such  as  to  throw  them  into  two  groups,  which  may  be 
called  radical  and  conservative,  the  former  composed  of 


THE   riCTUEE.  45 

Messrs.  Chase  and  Stanton ;  the  latter  of  Messrs.  Scw- 
ard,  Welles,  Bates,  Blair,  and  Smith.  Mr.  Lincoln  sits 
between  them,  as  if  in  the  place  of  a  point  of  union, 
but  still  nearest  to  the  radicals.  The  positions  of  the 
individual  men  are  further  symbolical.  Secretary 
Stanton,  representing  the  military  force  of  the  Govern 
ment,  is  at  the  President's  right  hand,  in  the  foreground, 
and  Secretary  Chase,  in  behalf  of  the  public  purse, 
stands  by  his  side.  Secretary  Welles,  of  the  Navy,  is 
at  his  left,  and  a  little  in  the  background,  the  navy 
being  secondary  to  the  army  in  importance  in  the 
struggle.  And  Secretary  Seward,  holding  what  is  often 
called  the  premiership  or  prime-ministership,  and  by 
etiquette  having  precedence  of  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet, 
is  accordingly  placed  in  the  center  foreground.  With 
hand  partly  spread  and  forefinger  extended,  Mr. 
Seward  emphasizes  his  approval  of  the  Proclamation 
to  which  he  has  just  listened,  but  suggests  that  it  "  be 
postponed  until  it  can  be  supported  by  military  suc 
cess."  At  the  opposite  or  left-hand  end  of  the  table 
Attorney-General  Bates,  his  arms  folded,  is  thinking 
steadily  upon  the  new  questions  of  constitutional  law 
which  this  Proclamation  will  call  up ;  and  Secretary 
Smith  and  Postmaster-General  Blair  stand  together 
near  him. 

The  "  still-life"  or  accessory  portion  of  the  picture  is 
also  fully  furnished  with  meaning.  Over  the  mantle-piece 
is  the  portrait  of  Andrew  Jackson,  who,  after  smashing 
nullification,  prophesied  that  the  South  would  attack 
the  Government  again,  and  that  the  pretext  would  be 
slavery ;  as  if  he  were  here  present  in  the  spirit  to  wit 
ness  the  death-stroke  of  the  enemy  whose  work  he  fore- 


4:6  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

told  in  the  flesh.  Behind  Mr.  Chase  is  the  picture  of 
Secretary  Stanton's  predecessor  in  office,  Simon  Cam 
eron,  who  was  the  first  member  of  the  Cabinet  to  avow 
the  radical  belief  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the 
negro  in  the  war.  On  the  table  before  the  President 
lies  a  parchment  copy  of  the  Constitution.  Behind 
Mr.  Seward  is  a  portfolio  marked  "  Commissions :  War 
Department."  Above  this,  on  the  table,  is  a  map  marked 
"  Seat  of  War  in  Virginia,"  and  another,  leaning  against 
the  table,  shows  the  density  of  the  slave  population 
in  the  various  parts  of  the  South.  In  the  foreground 
is  Judge  Whiting's  strongly  argued  book  on  the 
"  War  Powers  of  the  President ;"  -by  its  side,  open  on 
the  floor,  lies  Story's  "  Commentaries  on  the  Consti 
tution,"  and  in  a  corner  is  a  newspaper,  to  remind  the 
spectator  of  the  newspaper  press,  and  its  great  influ 
ence  in  the  cause  of  emancipation. 

Mr.  Carpenter's  work  is  truly  a  historical  painting. 
It  represents  the  significant  point  and  moment  of  a 
historical  event  of  the  very  highest  importance.  It 
does  this  by  placing  permanently  on  record  the  faces 
and  forms  of  the  men  who  did  the  work,  as  they 
gathered  and  consulted  over  the  crisis.  And  this 
it  accomplishes  with  the  clearness,  the  largeness,  the 
thoughtful  truth  and  impressive  moral  power  that  be 
long  to  unaffected  simplicity  and  strict  and  conscien 
tious  adherence  to  fact.  Besides  the  technical  profes 
sional  value  of  the  work  as  a  specimen  of  composition, 
drawing,  and  color ;  besides  its  even  higher  value  as  a 
collection  of  faithful  and  successful  portraits,  it  has  and 
always  will  have  the  very  much  greater  value  of  an 
impressive  and  expressive  monument  to  the  enfranchise- 


THE    PICTURE.  47 

ment  of  the  negroes  from  slavery,  and  the  greater  en 
franchisement  of  the  United  States  of  America  from 
sustaining  slavery. 

It  remains  to  bring  the  history  of  Mr.  Carpenter's 
great  work  down  to  the  present  time  (December,  1866). 
After  being  finished,  the  picture  was  exhibited  to  the 
public  in  New  York  and  Boston,  and  also  in  many  of 
the  "Western  cities,  with  very  great  success.  Previous 
to  the  opening  of  the  exhibition  in  New  York,  upon 
the  arrival  of  the  picture  from  Washington,  while  re 
touching  some  injuries  and  remedying  some  defects  in 
minor  details,  Mr.  Carpenter  worked  upon  it  for  thirty- 
six  hours  without  intermission — a  remarkable  feat  of 
physical  and  mental  endurance  ;  and,  it  may  be  added, 
a  violation  of  natural  laws  for  which  he  subsequently 
suffered  the  penalty  in  a  sickness  which  came  near 
proving  fatal. 

In  Chicago  and  Milwaukie  the  picture  was  exhibited 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  fairs  in 
those  two  cities  netting  handsome  sums  in  each  place. 
The  re-nomination,  re-election,  and  re-inauguration  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  for  hii  second  term  aided  from  time  to 
time  in  maintaining  popular  interest  in  the  picture. 
While  it  was  at  Pittsburg  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln  took  place,  and  public  interest  in  this  impressive 
portrait  of  himself  and  his  constitutional  advisers,  one 
of  whom,  Mr.  Seward,  was  also  a  victim  to  the  conspir 
acy,  rose  to  such  a  pitch  that,  once  at  least,  the  doors 
of  the  exhibition  room  had  actually  to  be  closed,  so  un 
governable  was  the  pressure.  For  about  a  year  from 
September,  1865,  the  picture  was  stored  in  Mr.  Carpen 
ter's  studio.  In  the  summer  of  1866  the  artist  retouched 


4:8  THE   PICTURE   AND    THE 

and  cleaned  it,  and  placed  it  on  exhibition  for  a  couple 
of  days  in  his  native  town,  Homer,  N.  Y.  The  fellow- 
townsmen  of  the  painter,  and  the  people  of  the  vicinity 
for  miles  around,  crowded  the  exhibition  room,  and  the 
artist  enjoyed  the  peculiar  satisfaction  of  the  prophet 
who  does  attain  honor  in  his  own  country. 

It  may  interest  the  reader  to  know  how  so  large  a 
canvas  (it  is  fourteen  feet  six  inches  long  by  nine  feet 
in  height)  can  be  safely  transported  about  the  country. 
This  is  accomplished  by  means  of  joints  in  the  frame  at 
top  and  bottom,  which  allow  the  picture  to  fold  over 
upon  itself  from  each  end,  thus  reducing  it  within  man 
ageable  dimensions.  Creasing  is  prevented  by  laying 
a  light  and  softly  covered  roller  within  the  canvas  at 
each  folding  place,  and  the  whole  being  firmly  screwed 
together  and  boxed,  it  travels  in  perfect  security. 

Soon  after  the  completion  of  the  picture,  Mr.  A.  II. 
Ritchie,  of  New  York,  the  celebrated  engraver,  was 
engaged  to  reproduce  it  upon  steel,  in  the  highest  style 
of  the  art.  To  facilitate  this  purpose  Mr.  Carpenter 
painted  a  small  copy  of  his  large  painting,  of  the  exact 
size  of  the  proposed  engraving — twenty-one  by  thirty- 
three  inches.  The  engraver  had  nearly  completed  his 
work,  after  more  than  a  year's  constant  labor,  when  the 
building  containing  his  office  was  consumed  by  fire. 
The  plate  was  saved  through  the  wise  precaution  of 
Mr.  J.  C.  Derby,  who  was  interested  in  its  publication, 
in  having  it  stored  nights  in  a  fire-proof  building ;  but 
the  small  copy  of  the  large  painting,  valued  at  $2,500, 
was  destroyed.  This  gave  rise  to  a  false  report,  widely 
circulated,  that  the  original  painting  was  lost ;  this,  unin 
jured,  still  remains  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Carpenter. 


T1IE    PICTURE.  49 

Sympathizing,  as  Mr.  Ritchie  did,  in  the  aim  and  object 
of  Mr.  Carpenter's  great  work,  he  carried  into  his  en 
graving  from  it  something  of  the  same  enthusiasm  with 
which  Mr.  Carpenter  was  himself  inspired.  The  result 
is  an  engraving  which  has  been  pronounced  by  high 
authority  the  finest  work  of  its  class  ever  produced  in 
this  country,  and  thus  is  placed  within  the  reach  of 
every  loyal  household  in  the  land  a  treasure  which 
must  become  more  and  more  valuable  with  the  lapse  of 
time  and  the  increasing  glory  of  the  republic. 


50  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE  MEN. 

IV. 
LINCOLN. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in 
what  was  then  Hardin,  now  Larue,  County,  Kentucky, 
on  Nolen  Creek.  His  earliest  ancestor  who  can  be 
determined,  moved  from  Berks  County,  Pa.,  to  Rock- 
ingham  County,  Virginia,  in  1750.  Thirty  years  after 
ward,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  President's  grandfather, 
moved  to  Floyd's  Creek,  in  Bullitt  County,  Ky.,  where 
he  was  killed  by  an  Indian.  His  widow  soon  remov 
ed  to  Washington  County.  Her  son  Thomas  mar 
ried,  in  1806,  Nancy  Ilanks,  a  Virginian,  and  the  couple 
moved  to  Hardin  County,  where  Abraham  was  born. 
The  boy  was  born  to  poverty  and  hard  work.  In  181G 
he  obtained  a  very  little  schooling,  but  it  quickly  ended, 
for  the  next  year  his  father  removed  to  Spencer  County, 
Indiana,  an  unsettled  region,  where  he  built  a  log  cabin. 
When  Abraham  was  ten  years  of  age  his  mother  died. 
Although  all  his  school-days  together  barely  amount 
ed  to  six  months'  time,  still  he  worked  at  his  stud 
ies  until  he  could  not  only  read,  but  could  write  let 
ters,  which  made  him  quite  a  sage,  and  often  a  scribe 
(but  never  a  Pharisee),  among  his  neighbors.  At 
nineteen,  young  Lincoln,  with  a  companion,  took  a 
flatboat-load  of  produce  to  New  Orleans  and  sold 
|t.  During .  the  down  trip  the  two  navigators  beat 
off  seven  negroes  who  attacked  them  with  the  design 
of  capturing  boat  and  cargo.  In  1830  his  father  moved 


•  .  LINCOLN.  51 

again,  to  Macon  County  ;  next  year  the  young  man  made 
a  second  flatboat  voyage  to  New  Orleans,  managing  so 
well  that  the  owner  who  sent  him  employed  him  as 
clerk  and  manager  of  a  flour-mill.  In  1832  young  Lin 
coln  enlisted  as  a  volunteer  in  the  Black  Hawk  war, 
and  was  chosen  captain  of  his  company,  serving  faith 
fully,  though  he  saw  no  actual  fighting.  Just  after 
the  war  he  made  his  first  entry  into  politics,  by  run- 
ing  for  the  State  Legislature,  as  a  Clay  man  in  opposi 
tion  to  Jackson,  and  was  beaten  (the  only  time)  in  a  con 
test  before  the  people.  In  his  own  precinct,  however, 
he  received  277  votes,  out  of  the  284  cast.  He  now 
opened  a  store,  and  got  the  postmastership.of  the  vil 
lage,  but  had  to  sell  out ;  then  tried  surveying,  but 
became  embarrassed  again  in  1837,  and  his  instruments 
were  sold  by  the  sheriff  in  execution.  He  had  always 
spent  what  time  he  could  in  reading  and  study ;  and 
he  now  gave  up  the  idea  of  business,  and  went  to  read 
ing  law,  with  a  view  to  a  legal  and  political  career. 
Beginning  in  1834,  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Legis 
lature  for  four  successive  two-year  terms,  during  which 
he  gained  considerable  reputation  as  a  speaker  and  a 
sensible*  man  of  business.  In  1836  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  in  1837  he  settled  in  Springfield.  At 
the  end  of  his  fourth  legislative  term,  in  1842,  he 
declined  a  re-nomination,  in  order  to  bring  up  his  law 
studies  ;  and  in  the  same  year  he  married  Mary  Todd, 
daughter  of  Hon.  Robert  G.  Todd,  of  Lexington,  Ky.  In 
1844  he  stumped  Illinois  and  part  of  Indiana,  for  Henry 
Clay,  and  in  184C  he  was  elected  to  Congress — the 
only  Whig  from  Illinois — and  by  the  startling  majority 
of  1,511,  where  Henry  Clay  had  only  had  914  votes. 


52  TIIE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

While  in  Congress,  with  constitutional  discrimination 
about  principles,  he  voted  for  all  supplies  needed  to 
carry  on  the  Mexican  war,  but  always  refused  to  vote 
that  the  war  had  been  justly  begun.  He  was  a  dele 
gate  to  the  convention  which  nominated  Gen.  Taylor, 
in  1-848,  and  labored  hard  in  canvassing  for  him.  Dur 
ing  this  congressional  term,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  frequently 
occasion  to  vote  on  questions  involving  slavery,  and 
always  voted  for  freedom.  In  January,  1 849,  he  moved 
a  bill  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
but  it  was  too  soon  for  public  opinion,  and  the  bill 
failed.  The  Wilmot  Proviso  was  often  before  the 
House,  in  consequence  of  efforts  to  apply  it  to  recently 
acquired  territory,  and  as  Mr.  Lincoln  afterward  said, 
he  voted  for  it,  "  in  one  way  or  another,  about  forty 
times." 

At  the  end  of  this  session,  in  March,  1849,  Mr.  Lin 
coln  declined  a  re-nomination ;  and  was  during  the 
year  beaten  as  Whig  candidate  for  United  States 
Senator  from  Illinois.  He  now  passed  a  number  of 
years  at  home,  practicing  his  profession,  and  enjoying 
an  increasing  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  politician. 
During  this  time  he  invented  his  "  camels,"  or^machine 
for  carrying  a  ship  over  bars  or  obstructions,  of  which 
a  model  is  to  be  seen  at  the  Patent  Office  in  Washing 
ton.  This  consisted  of  a  couple  of  large  cases  that 
could  be  inflated  somewhat  after  the  fashion  of  a  bel 
lows.  These  were  to  be  sunk  empty,  secured  under 
the  vessel,  and  then  filled  with  air,  so  as  to  lift  the  ship. 

The  Nebraska  Bill  was  passed  May  22,  1854,  and  in 
the  following  autumn  the  Illinois  Legislature  was  to 
choose  a  United  States  Senator  in  place  of  Gen.  Shields, 


LINCOLN.  53 

who  had  voted  with  Douglas  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  It  was  important  that  Judge 
Douglas'  own  State  should  indorse  his  course,  and  he 
went  himself  into  this  canvass.  So  did  Mr.  Lincoln 
on  the  other  part,  and  with  the  better  fortune.  He 
met  Douglas  in  public  debate,  and  it  was  generally 
conceded  on  both  sides  that  he  decidedly  gained  the 
advantage  of  him,  powerful  debater  as  he  was.  The 
result  of  the  canvass  was  accordingly  the  election  of  an 
anti-Nebraska  legislature,  and  the  choice  of  that  able 
man  and  unswerving  friend  of  freedom,  Hon.  Lyman 
Trumbull,  for  United  States  Senator.  Mr.  Trumbull 
had  been  a  Democrat ;  and  Mr.  Lincoln  having  been  a 
Whig,  the  friends  of  the  latter  were  disposed  to  contest 
this  choice,  and  to  insist  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  be 
Senator.  But  with  self-denying  wisdom,  he  used  his 
own  personal  influence  to  carry  the  votes  of  his  friends 
to  Mr.  Trumbull,  and  thus  secured  Ins  election. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  reputation  was  becoming  national  at 
the  time  of  the  Fremont  and  Buchanan  campaign,  and 
he  had  110  votes  for  the  nomination  as  Yice-Presidcnt 
with  Fremont,  standing  next  to  Mr.  Dayton,  who  was 
the  nominee. 

By  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Douglas  w^ere  the 
recognized  leaders,  in  Illinois,  on  the  two  sides  of  the 
great  political  controversy  of  the  day.  As  Mr.  Ray 
mond  says,  in  his  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  "  Whenever  Mr. 
Douglas  made  a  speech,  the  people  instinctively  an 
ticipated  a  reply  from  Mr.  Lincoln."  In  June,  1 85  7,  Mr. 
Douglas  made,  at  Springfield,  that  speech  which  publicly 
committed  him  to  the  support  of  the  Lecompton  Con 
stitution  and  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Mr.  Lincoln, 


54:  THE   FICTUEE  AND  THE   MEN. 

two  weeks  afterward,  replied  in  a  speech  at  the  same 
place,  and  these  speeches  were  a  sort  of  preface  to  the 
famous  series  of  Lincoln-Douglas  debates  the  next  year, 
which  firmly  established  Mr.  Lincoln's  reputation  as  a 
wise  and  just  politician,  and  as  a  powerful  speaker 
and  skillful  and  ready  debater.  The  two  combatants 
were  in  that  year  candidates  for  the  United  States  sen- 
atorship,  to  be  determined  by  the  Legislature  then  to  be 
chosen.  On  one  hand,  Mr.  Douglas'  fortunes  were 
staked  on  the  election,  because  if  his  own  State  would 
not  continue  him  in  the  Senate,  he  would  evidently  not 
be  available  on  his  intended  further  road  as  a  Presiden 
tial  candidate.  And  on  the  other  hand,  the  Republi 
cans  of  Illinois  felt  it  supremely  important  to  register 
the  powerful  voice  of  their  great  State  in  favor  of  free 
dom,  and  against  the  oppressive  measures  forced  on 
the  citizons  of  Kansas.  Each  of  the  candidates  had 
already  pretty  well  denned  his  position,  as  they  had 
spoken  thrice  each  in  June  and  July  of  that  year 
(1858);  when,  on  July  24,  Mr.  Lincoln  challenged  Mr. 
Douglas  to  meet  him  in  a  scries  of  public  debates  dur 
ing  the  pending  campaign.  Mr.  Douglas,  after  a  cor 
respondence  which  indicates  some  reluctance  to  venture 
on  the  contest,  offered  a  programme  of  seven  debates, 
in  four  of  which  he  was  to  have  the  opening  and  closing 
turns,  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  them  only  in  the  other  three. 
But  Mr.  Lincoln,  confident  in-  his  own  plain,  keen,  and 
weighty  reasoning,  and  straightforward,  clear,  common 
sense,  and  in  the  overwhelming  justice  and  rightfulness 
of  his  cause,  readily  accepted  the  proposition,  and  the 
meetings  were  held. 

The  seven  places  of  meeting  were  in  as  many  differ- 


LINCOLN.  55 

ent  portions 'of  the  State,  and  the  series  of  debates 
caused  a  very  deep  and  genuine  excitement.  Each  party 
greeted  and  welcomed  and  "  celebrated"  its  champion 
by  the  ordinary  means  of  marching  in  long  rows,  wav 
ing  flags,  employing  brass  bands,  shouting,  and  firing  of 
cannon.  But  these  common  and  cheap  manifestations 
were  underlaid  and  intensified  into  a  real  meaning,  by 
the  confidence  of  each  party  in  its  champion,  by  a  keen 
enjoyment  on  the  part  of  the  audience  of  every  good 
point  on  a  principle,  and  every  successful  hit  at  tho 
opponent,  and  still  more  by  the  profound  conviction 
everywhere  felt  that  the  rights  of  man  and  the  foun 
dation  principles  of  American  civilization  were  really 
in  dispute.  The  result  of  the  canvass  was,  that  on  the 
popular  vote,  the  Republican  vote  was  4,144  more  than 
that  of  Douglas ;  but  so  shrewdly  had  the  State  been 
districted  in  the  Democratic  interest,  that  that  party 
had  a  working  majority  in  the  Legislature,  and  Mr. 
Douglas  was  elected  Senator.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  suc 
ceeded,  doubtless  he  would  not  afterward  have  become 
President. 

The  Presidential  election,  of  November,  1860,  was 
approaching.  As  early  as  in  February  of  that  year 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  invited  by  the  New  York  Young 
Men's  Republican  Club  to  speak  in  that  city  on  the 
political  issues  of  the  times.  This  he  did,  at  Cooper 
Institute,  Feb.  27th;  delivering  a  speech  full  of  wisdom, 
knowledge,  and  unanswerable  political  and  statesman 
like  reasoning.  That  speech  especially,  in  connection 
also  with. those  afterward  delivered  in  New  England, 
gave  Mr.  Lincoln  as  high  a  reputation  at  the  East  as 
he  had  at  the  West, 


5G  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

The  consequence  of  these  speeches  was  undoubtedly 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  least  the  second  choice  of  the 
Chicago  Convention  from  the  start.  He  was  nominated 
for  President  at  Chicago  on  Friday,  May  18,  1860,  was 
elected  Nov.  G,  18GO,  was  re-elected  in  Nov.,  1864,  and 
having  led  the  country  successfully  through  the  most 
powerful  and  dangerous  rebel  lion  of  the  world's  history, 
was  assassinated  by  J.  Wilkes  Booth  on  the  evening 
of  Friday,  April  14th,  1865,  and  died  early  the  next 
morning. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  attempt  here  any  formal  ac 
count  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  actions  while  President,  or 
of  that  vast  expression  of  national  mourning  which 
attended  his  funeral  cortege  from  Washington  to 
Springfield.  The  facts  of  the  war*  the  facts  of  that 
unprecedented  funeral,  are  sufficiently  known.  The 
purpose  of  the  present  sketch  will  be  better  served  \>y 
an  arrangement  of  some  reminiscences  and  anecdotes 
of  the  man,  so  treated  as  to  form  an  illustration  of  the 
principal  points  in  his  character. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  as  President  of  the  United  States,  bore 
a  load  of  responsibility  and  of  difficulty  beyond  all 
comparison  greater  than  was  ever  imposed  not  only 
upon  any  other  President,  but  upon  any  other  citizen 
of  the  United  States  as  such.  His  vexations  and  per 
plexities  find  no  parallel  in  our  national  history,  except 
in  those  of  Washington,  as  commander-in-chief  and 
dictator  during  the  Revolution.  The  great  picture 
which  this  little  book  is  meant  to  illustrate,  commem 
orates  the  act  which  was  the  central  and  crowning  one 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  ofiicial  life,  and  he  occupies  by  right  • 
the  central  place  in  the  picture,  his  face  wearing  a 


LINCOLN.  57 

characteristic  expression  of  patience,  melancholy,  kind 
ness,  and  perhaps  a  faint  touch  of  humor.  In  his  hand 
ho  holds  the  draft  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
which  he  has  just  read  to  the  assembled  Cabinet ;  and 
thoughtful  and  intent,  lie  is  listening  with  surprised 
interest — for  he  had  never  thought  of  the  point  before 
—to  the  weighty  suggestion  of  Secretary  Seward  to 
wait  for  a  victory. 

The  chief  significance  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a  historical 
personage  depends  on  his  being  a  wonderfully  true  rep 
resentative  of  the  American  character — that  is,  of  the 
character  of  the  American  of  the  Northwest ;  for  that 
region  at  this  day  controls  the  United  States.  It  is  as 
a  representative  man  that  he  will  possess  the  most  just 
fame,  and  accordingly  it  is  interesting  'to  observe  how 
the  leading  traits  in  his  character  as  an  individual  cor 
respond  to  the  leading  traits  in  our  national  character. 

HONESTY. 

• 

A  Mr.  Crawford  lent  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  a  boy,  a 
copy  of  Weems'  "  Life  of  Washington,"  which  he  was 
eagerly  reading  in  the  intervals  of  his  labor.  He  left 
it  through  one  stopmy  night  so  near  the  chinky  wall  of 
the  log  cabin,  that  the  rain  drove  in  upon  it,  soaked 
the  book,  and  quite  ruined  its  looks.  Abraham  was 
entirely  without  money,  but  with  a  natural  rectitude 
perhaps  equal  to  that  of  the  hero  of  the  spoiled  volume, 
he  promptly  carried  it  to  Mr.  Crawford,  showed  it,  told 
how  the  harm  happened,  and  offered  to  work  out  the 
damage.  Crawford,  with  good  judgment,  gave  the 
honest  little  fellow  the  book,  in  return  for  three  days' 
work  at  pulling  fodder ;  and  the  incident  gained  him 


58  THE    PICTURE    AND    THE   MEN. 

the  lasting  esteem  of  the  Crawfords  and  of  the  neigh 
borhood. 

An  entirely  similar  mixture  of  rectitude  and  inde 
pendence  of  character  Was  shown  in  the  account  given 
by  Pollard  Simmons  about  a  county  survey.  Simmons, 
it  appears,  met  General  Ewing  (in  charge  of  the  United 
States  Surveys  in  the  Northwest  Territory),  while  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  a  needy  young  man,  and  asked  for  a  job 
for  him.  The  General  looked  into  his  papers,  and  said 
that  such  a  county  needed  surveying;  Mr.  Lincoln 
might  do  that ;  the  pay  would  be  8600.  Simmons,  in 
great  delight,  told  young  Lincoln  the  great  news  as 
soon  as  he  got  home,  and  was  astounded  to  hear  him 
reply  that  he  didn't  think  he  would  undertake  the  job. 
"  In  the  name  of  -wonder,  why  ?"  asked  poor  Simmons ; 
"  six  hundred  dollars  doesn't  grow  on  every  bush  out 
here  in  Illinois !"  "  I  know  that,"  was  the  answer,  "  and 
I  need  the  money  bad  enough,  Simmons,  as  you  know ; 
but  I  never  have  been  undev  obligations  to  a  Demo 
cratic  administration,  and  I  never  intend  to  be  as  long 
as  I  can  get  my  living  another  way.  General  Ewing 
must  find  another  man  to  do  his  work." 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  practicing  lawyer,  a  post- 
office  agent  came  in  one  day  arid  asked  for  him.  On 
finding  him,  the  agent  said  he  wanted  to  collect  a  sum 
of  money  due  the  Department  since  the  office  at  New 
Salem  was  discontinued.  Mr.  Lincoln — for  he  was  the 
ex-postmaster  of  New  Salem — looked  a  little  puzzled, 
and  a  friend  who  was  present,  seeing  this,  offered  to 
furnish  the  money,  but  Mr.  Lincoln,  suddenly  rising, 
went  and  fished  out  a  little  old  trunk  from  a  pile  of 
books,  and  asked  the  agent  what  was  the  amount  of 


LINCOLN.  59 

his  demand.  The  man  told  it — it  was  over  seventeen 
dollars.  Mr.  Lincoln  unlocked  the  trunk,  took  out 
a  parcel  of  coin  done  up  in  a  rag,  opened  it,  count 
ed  it,  and  handed  it  to  the  agent.  It  was  the  exact 
sum.  "  I  never  use  any  man's  money  except  my  own," 
said  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  the  agent  had  left.  Though  he 
had  passed  through  much  poverty  and  privation  since 
leaving  the  post-office,  he  had  always  had  that  money 
ready  in  the  rag. 

He  found  no  difficulty  in  applying  his  principle  to 
the  famous  lawyer's  problem,  of  "How  to  do  right 
when  you  know  your  client  is  in  the  wrong."  On  this 
point  Mr.  Lincoln  seems  never  to  have  satisfied  himself 
with  the  common  arguments  that  "  the  clieyt  may  be 
right  after  all ;  that  every  mail  has  a  right  to  have  his 
side  stated  as  well  as  it  can  be,  and  the  other  client 
will  have  his  side  stated  so ;  that  the  best  plan  for  the 
judge  or  jury  is  to  have  the  two  sides  each  stated  at 
their  best,  each  without  reference  to  the  other."  These, 
reasonings,  which  lead  easily  to  sophistications,  tricks, 
and  lies,  Mr.  Lincoln  never  relished ;  and  his  less 
squeamish  colleagues  used  to  say  that  he  was  even 
"  perversely  honest."  It  was  perfectly  well  known 
that  if  he  found  himself  on  the  wrong  side,  his  help 
was  worth  little.  He  could  not  put  his  heart  into  an 
unjust  cause.  He  would  never  engage  on  the  wrong 
side  if  he  could  find  it  out,  but  made  it  a  rule  to  deter 
mine  the  right  and  wrong  of  the  case  before  taking  it 
up,  and  if  the  client  was  wrong,  he  refused  the  work 
and  the  fee,  and  told  the  applicant  that  he  had  no  case, 
and  ought  not  to  go  to  law.  Clients  will  sometimes 
fool  their  own  lawyers  and  deceive  them  about  the  case. 


GO  THE   riCTUKE  AND   THE   MEN. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  once  or  twice  so  dealt  with ;  but  even 
in  the  middle  of  the  suit,  if  the  testimony  revealed 
such  a  fact,  the  whole  audience  could  see  Mr.  Lincoln's 
interest  in  his  case  fall  and  die,  and  the  rest  of  his  labor 
in  it  was  merely  formal.  On  one  such  occasion,  where 
he  had  an  associate  counsel,  Mr.  Lincoln  promptly  in 
formed  him  that  he  should  not  make  the  argument  in 
the  case ;  the  associate  made  it,  won  the  cause,  receiv 
ed  the  fee — nine  hundred  dollars — and  offered  Mr.  Lin 
coln  his  share.  The  upright  lawyer  would  not  touch 
a  cent  of  it.  He  was  once  defending  a  person  who  had 
delivered  certain  lambs  where  sheep  were  contracted 
for.  This  fact  did  not  appear  until  the  testimony  show 
ed  it  on  th£  trial.  When  that  happened,  Mr.  Lincoln 
simply  examined  the  witnesses  to  find  how  many  such 
lambs  were  delivered,  and  when  he  addressed  the  jury, 
he  plainly  told  them  that  their  business  was  to  give  a 
verdict  against  his  client,  and  that  all  he  asked  of  them 
was  to  judge  justly  as  to  the  extent  of  damages.  In  an 
other  case  he  had  successfully  sued  a  railroad  company, 
and  was  about  to  have  judgment,  a  certain  offset  being 
proved  against  his  client,  which  offset  was  of  course  to 
be  deducted  from  the  amount  of  the  judgment.  But 
just  in  time  to  correct  an  error,  the  honest  lawyer  rose 
and  informed  the  court  that  the  offset  against  his  client 
ought  to  be  larger  by  such  and  such  a  sum,  which  he 
proceeded  to  describe  and  allow;  and  the  court  de 
ducted  it  accordingly.  It  is  no  wonder  that  such  a 
man  was  called  "  perversely  honest."  He  was  a  capi 
tal  lawyer  for  honest  men,  but  a  miserable  lawyer  for 
scoundrels. 

A  similar  scrupulous  honesty  was  shown  in  his  habit 


LINCOLN.  61 

of  dividing  joint  fees  when  he  received  them.  He  al 
ways  did  this  with  each  separate  fee,  setting  his  asso 
ciate's  portion  aside  in*  its  own  parcel,  with  the  owner's 
name  and  that  of  the  case  in  which  it  was  received. 
This  was  only  a  habit,  but  it  strongly  marks  the  prin 
ciple. 

This  ingrained  instinctive  honesty  was,  however,  a 
principal  element  of  his  power  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a 
speaker.  What  jury  could  resist  a  prepossession  to 
begin  with,  in  favor  of  a  man  who,  it  was  perfectly  no 
torious,  always  refiised  cases  he  did  not  believe  in? 
No  man  alive  could  help  being  disposed  to  give  him  a 
verdict  under  such  circumstances.  What  listener  be 
fore  the  orator's  platform  could  help  feeling  the  influ 
ence  of  the  visible  effort  to  state  the  exact  truth,  which 
so  singularly  fills  period  after  period  of  all  Mr.  Lincoln's 
arguments  ?  The  contrast  between  his  painfully  earn 
est,  homely,  direct  struggle  after  mere  fact  as  such,  and 
the  skillful  contrivances  of  the  trained  politician's  ef 
forts  to  make  out  a  case,  is  wonderfully  clear  in  the 
speeches  of  the  great  series  of  debates  with  Mr.  Doug 
las.  As  the  reader  passes  from  one  to  the  other  and 
back  again,  he  feels  a  change  of  moral  atmosphere, 
almost  like  that  of  alternating  between  a  juggler's  gas- 
lit  exhibition-room  and  a  cool  sunshiny  morning  land 
scape. 

Before  delivering  that  speech  at  Springfield  which  so 
clearly  and  ably  defined  the  essence  of  the  whole  ques 
tion  of  slavery  and  anti-slavery,  Mr.  Lincoln  made  an 
experiment  on  his  law  partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  which 
showed  the  same  honesty  in  arguing  a  political  point  as 
he  used  in  arguing  a  legal  point.  Just  before  going  to 


P,2  TIJE   PICTUBE  AND  THE  MEN. 

the  meeting  he  locked  himself  in  with  Mr.  Ilcrndon, 
and  reading  him  the  first  paragraph  of  the  speech,  ask 
ed,  "What  do  you  think  of  it-?"  "I  think  it  is  all 
true,"  was  the  reply,  "  but  I  doubt  whether  it  is  good 
policy  to  say  it  now."  "That,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"  makes  no  difference.  It  is  the  truth,  and  the  nation 
is  entitled  to  it." 

The  utter  and  uncompromising  honesty  of  the  man 
soaked  and  colored  all  his  life.  It  was  as  quietly 
prompt  and  effective  on  the  question  of  the  Presidential 
nomination  as  on  the  question  of  the  old  rain-sopped 
book.  They  telegraphed  to  him  when  the  Chicago 
Convention  was  in  session,  that  to  carry  the  Conven 
tion  he  must  have  the  votes  of  two  delegations  named, 
and  that  for  this  he  must  pledge  himself  if  elected  to 
put  the  chiefs  of  those  delegations  into  his  Cabinet.  He 
spoke  instantly  back  by  the  wires,  with  Lincolnian 
morals  and  phrase,  "  I  authorize  no  bargains,  and  will 
be  bound  by  none." 

COURAGE. 

Mr.  Lincoln  possessed  abundance  of  courage,  both 
physical  and  moral ;  but  of  his  physical  courage  it  is 
to  be  remarked  that  it  was  much  more  likely  to  be 
aroused  by  offenses  against  honor  or  by  abuses  prac 
ticed  on  the  defenseless  than  by  any  impositions  on 
himself.  He  was  far  from  being  a  fighter  like  General 
Jackson ;  and  in  fact  so  predominant  was  his  kindliness 
and  shrinking  from  causing  pain  to  others,  that  he  only 
bestirred  himself  when  driven  to  the  farthest  endurable 
limit.  On  one  of  his  flatboat  trips  to  New  Orleans  he 
and  his  sole  companion,  armed  with  billets  of  wood. 


LINCOLN.  G3 

met  and  thoroughly  thrashed  and  defeated  seven  ne 
groes,  who  made  a  night  attack  on  their  boat.  When 
he  kept  a  little  grocery,  and  a  local  bully  used  some 
coarse  language  before  some  women,  Lincoln  asked 
him  to  refrain,  and  being  rudely  challenged  in  conse 
quence,  wrestled  with  the  fellow,  threw  him,  and  with 
an  odd,  grim  jocularity  held  him  down  and  rubbed 
smart  weed  into  his  face  and  eyes  until  he  roared  in 
agony.  But  then  releasing  him,  he  at  once  did  all  in 
his  power  to  relieve  the  pain,  with  so  much  genuine 
good-nature  that  the  beaten  bully  became  his  life-long 
friend.  When  a  gang  of  roughs  in  the  neighborhood 
forced  him  into  a  contest  with  their  champion,  and  clos 
ing  on  him  in  the  struggle  jointly  leveled  him  to  the 
earth  as  he  was  winning  in  the  combat,  he  was  neither 
enraged  nor  scared,  but  jumped  up,  joked  over  his  own 
defeat,  and  by  sheer  good -nature  made  them  all  so 
much  his  friends  that  they  invited  him  to  become  of 
their  worshipful  company.  This  honor  he  thankfully 
declined,  but  retained  their  friendship.  Once  when  a 
gang  of  political  roughs  threatened  and  attempted  to 
drive  Colonel  Baker  off  a  platform,  Mr.  Lincoln  unex 
pectedly  dropped  down  through  a  scuttle  in  the  ceiling 
to  Colonel  Baker's  side  and  coolly  observed,  u  This  is  a 
land  of  freedom  of  speech.  Mr.  Baker  has  a  right  to 
speak.  No  man  shall  take  him  from  the  stand  if  I  can 
prevent  it."  And  they  gave  up  the  attempt.  When 
Mr.  Linder,  a  powerful  speaker,  had  been  threatened 
with  violence  for  things  uttered  in  a  speech  that  was 
disagreeable  to  the  Democrats,  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Colo 
nel  Baker  alone  escorted  him  safe  home  to  his  hotel. 
Plots  and  plans  for  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln 


C)-i  THE    riCTUHE   AND   TIIE   MEN. 

were  diligently  contrived  from  the  time  of  his  first  nom 
ination  at  Chicago  until  the  final  successful  attempt  in 
1865.  So  many  letters  did  he  receive  which  threat 
ened  his  life,  that  he  kept  a  separate  file  of  them.  "  The 
first  one  or  two,"  he  said  to  Mr.  Carpenter,  "  made  me 
feel  a  little  uncomfortable,  but  I  came  at  length  to  look 
for  a  regular  installment  of  this  kind  of  correspondence 
in  every  week's  mail,  and  up  to  inauguration-day  I  was 
in  constant  receipt  of  such  letters.  It  is  no  uncommon 
thing  to  receive  them  now  [March,  1864,  the  year  be 
fore  his  death],  but  they  have  ceased  to  give  me  any 
apprehension."  When  the  artist  expressed  his  surprise 
at  this,  Mr.  Lincoln  answered,  after  his  quaint  fashion, 
"  Oh,  there's  nothing  like  getting  used  to  things  !" 
When  he  left  home  for  his  first  inauguration,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  throw  the  train  from  the  track ;  then  a 
hand-grenade  was  found  secreted  in  the  cars ;  then  an 
organization  to  assassinate  him  was  found  to  exist  at 
Baltimore.  Yet  he  deviated  not  one  inch  from  his  pro 
posed  route,  with  the  sole  exception  that  he  went  from 
Harrisburg  to  Washington  one  train  earlier  than  had 
been  intended.  He  hoisted  the  flag  at  Philadelphia, 
spoke  at  Harrisburg,  and  moved  and  acted  in  all  other 
particulars  exactly  on  the  pre-arranged  plan,  as  if  no 
body  could  be  killed  by  violence.  All  the  arguments 
and  remonstrances  of  his  friends  at  Washington  failed 
to  reconcile  him  to  the  presence  of  the  escort  that  pru 
dence  did  in  fact  require.  When  General  Wads  worth 
on  one  occasion  sent  such  an  escort,  in  part  actually 
against  his  will,  he  complained  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  he 
"couldn't  hear  themselves  talk"  for  the  rattle  of  sabers 
and  spurs,  and  that  he  was  much  more  afraid  of  being 


LINCOLN.  65 

shot  in  consequence  of  the  inexperience  of  some  green 
cavalryman  than  of  being  seized  by  any  of  Jeb 
Stuart's  troopers.  lie  used  to  walk  and  lide  about 
Washington  at  all  hours,  by  day  or  by  night,  alone  or 
with  some  single  friend ;  and  Colonel  Halpine,  then  on 
General  Hallcck's  staff,  over  and  over  again  reminded 
his  superiors  of  the  total  defenselessness  of  the  Presi 
dent.  "  Any  assassin^  or  maniac,"  says  Colonel  Hal- 
pine,  "  seeking  his  life,  could  enter  his  presence  without 
the  interference  of  a  single  armed  man  to  hold  him 
back.  The  entrance  doors,  and  all  doors  on  the  official 
side  of  the  building,  were  open  at  all  hours  ot  the  day, 
and  very  late  into  the  evening ;  and  I  have  many  times 
entered  the  mansion  and  walked  up  to  the  rooms  of  the 
two  private  secretaries  as  late  as  nine  or  ten  o'clock  at 
night,  without  seeing  or  being  challenged  by  a  single 
soul."  Mr.  Lincoln  was  convinced  that  his  death  would 
not  help  the  rebels,  and  he  seemed  to  think  that  they 
would  reason  in  like  manner,  and  not  seek  his  life. 
The  ease  with  which  such  reasonings  satisfied  him 
shows  that  he  was  brave  enough,  but  the  mistake  was 
sadly  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  he  was  killed  in 
just  the  way  he  thought  out  of  the  question,  when 
there  was  no  longer  any  rebel  confederacy  to  encour 
age,  and  by  exactly  such  means  as  a  proper  escort 
would  have  effectually  prevented. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  moral  courage  was  even  greater  than 
his  physical.  Indeed,  he  said  that  he  thought  himself 
a  great  coward  physically — though  he  was  certainly 
partly  at  least  in  jest — and  he  added,  "  Moral  coward 
ice  is  something  which  I  think  I  never  had." 

While  Mr.  Lincoln  was  practicing  law  in  Springfield, 
5 


66  THE   PICTURE   AND  THE   MEN. 

the  other  lawyers  in  that  city  had,  most  of  them,  some 
political  ambition,  and  accordingly  they  were  shy  of 
any  legal  business  likely  to  make  them  unpopular, 
and  particularly  of  defending  men  accused  of  help 
ing  fugitive  slaves  to  escape.  At  that  time  it  was  com 
monly  considered  in  that  region  that  catching  and  sur 
rendering  "  fugitives  from  labor"  was  a  constitutional 
duty  to  be  performed  with  alacrity.  Even  that  high- 
spirited  man  Edward  D.  Baker — afterward  killed  at 
Ball's  Bluff—in  those  days,  when  applied  to  profession 
ally  by  a  person  sued  for  helping  off  a  fugitive  slave, 
plainly  refused,  and  said  openly  that  he  could  not  afford 
it  as  a  political  man.  The  defendant  then  consulted  an 
anti-slavery  friend,  who  at  once  recommended  Lincoln. 
"  HJs  not  afraid  of  an  unpopular  case,"  said  he ; 
"  when  I  go  for  a  lawyer  to  defend  an  arrested  fugi 
tive  slave,  other  lawyers  will  refuse  me ;  but  if  Mr. 
Lincoln  is  at  home,  he  will  always  take  my  case." 

Having  made  up  his  mind  what  was  the  real  scope 
and  bearing  of  the  political  controversy  which  Mr. 
Douglas  was  trying  to  conduct  on  his  "  popular  sover 
eignty"  principle  exclusively,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  only 
the  foresight  to  judge  correctly  what  course  was  best 
for  the  political  future,  and  the  rectitude  to  unreserv 
edly  adopt  that  course  as  his  own  on  principle,  but  the 
moral  courage — in  his  Springfield  speech  of  July,  1858 
— to  avow  the  whole,  clear,  broad  grounds  of  this  line 
of  action,  when  even  the  party  and  personal  friends 
who  were  putting  themselves  into  his  hands  by  nomi 
nating  him  for  the  senatorship,  judged  that  it  would 
be  better  to  be*  silent.  How  just  his  perceptions  were, 
and  how  truly  the  heart  of  the  people  responded  to  the 


LINCOLN.  67 

key-note  which  lie  struck,  was  splendidly  shown  by  his 
actually  beating  Mr.  Douglas  on  the  popular  vote, 
though  he  failed  of  a  majority  and  was  "  gerryman 
dered"  out  of  an  election  in  the  Legislature. 

When  he  became  President,  his  moral  courage  was 
certainly  not  less  required  nor  less  conspicuous.  With 
out  experience  in  war,  diplomacy,  or  high  executive 
office,  he  found  himself  obliged  to  assume  the  responsi 
bility  of  taking  prompt  and  very  critical  and  important 
steps  in  all  three.  Only  waiting  to  discover  what 
needed  to  be  done,  he  did  not  fail  to  do  it  when  the 
right  time  came.  He  called  out  seventy-five  thousand 
volunteers  ;  he  blockaded  the  Southern  ports ;  he  seized 
all  the  telegraph  dispatches  on  file  in  all  the  offices  of 
the  country  for  a  year  back ;  and  did  other  acts  of  like 
kind,  for  which  there  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  any 
legal  authority.  It  is  true  that  these  measures  were 
necessary,  were  so  jugded  by  the  Cabinet,  and  were 
morally  certain  to  be  legalized  by  Congress ;  but  would 
Mr.  Buchanan  have  had  the  moral  courage  to  do  them  ? 
By  no  means ;  and  the  burden  of  their  responsibility  was 
a  grave  one  ev-en  for  the  strong  shoulders  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

The  same  perfectly  cool  moral  courage,  acting  always 
with  a  careful  waiting  upon  the  dictates  of  his  slow 
and  patient  and  fearless  judgment,  but  acting  with  the 
most  perfect  promptness  when  the  time  came,  was  evi 
dent  on  many  a  subsequent  occasion.  Whether  ho 
acted  or  refrained  from  acting,  neither  the  threats  and 
abuse  of  enemies,  nor  the  anger  and  impatience  of 
friend?,  nor  any  fear  of  the  face  of  man  moved  him. 
He  wanted  n£  help  in  doing  right — he  only  wanted 
consultation  to  convince  him  what  ricrht  was.  When 


C8  THE  PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

a  foolish  staff-officer,  Major  Key,  had  the  insolence  to 
tell  him  to  his  face  that  the  generals  in  the  field  had  a 
political  policy  of  their  own  not  to  win  battles,  he  in 
stantly  dismissed  him  from  the  service.  "When  he 
thought  best  to  prepare  his  Emancipation  Proclamation 
he  did  so,  and  this  time  without  asking  advice  of  any 
body.  Just  as  steadily  he  postponed  issuing  it  until  the 
right  day,  and  just  as  promptly,  when  that  day  came, 
he  sent  it  forth. 

WKATII. 

Long  -  suffering  and  kindly  as  he  was,  Mr.  Lincoln 
could  become  powerfully  angry.  This,  however,  was 
far  harder  where  only  he  himself  was  concerned,  than 
where  his  country,  some  important  and  highly  valued 
interest,  a  friend,  or  some  lowly  and  helpless  person 
were  concerned.  A  poor  negro  steamboat-hand,  from 
Springfield  or  the  vicinity,  had  been  imprisoned  in  New 
Orleans,  merely  for  being  a  free  negro  from  out  of  the 
State,  and  was  in  danger  of  being  sold  for  jail  fees. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  finding  that  the  Governor  of  Illinois  had 
no  power  to  do  anything  to  prevent  this  rascality, 
jumped  up,  exclaiming,  "  By  the  Almighty,  I'll  have 
that  negro  back,  or  I'll  have  a  twenty  years'  agitation 
in  Illinois,  until  the  Governor  can  do  something  in  the 
premises."  And  he  would  have  done  it,  had  not  some 
money  been  sent  forward  in  time  to  rescue  the  poor 
fellow.  The  strongest  expression  of  indignation  that 
Mr.  Carpenter  ever  heard  him  use  wTas  with  reference 
to  the  Wall  Street  gold-gamblers,  about  the  time  of 
the  Proclamation.  "  For  my  part,"  he  exclaimed  to 
Governor  Curtin,  and  striking  the  table  with  his  clinch 
ed  fist,  "  I  wish  every  one  of  them  had  his  devilish 


LINCOLN.  69 

head  shot  off!"  An  officer  deservedly  dismissed  the 
service  tormented  the  President  with  repeated  state 
ments  of  a  case  that  was  bad  on  his  own  showing,  and 
on  his  third  visit  was  impudent  enough  to  say,  "  Well, 
Mr.  President,  I  see  you  are  fully  determined  not  to  do 
me  justice!"  Mr.  Lincoln,  his  lips  slightly  closing  to 
gether,  quietly  rose  up,  laid  down  the  papers  in  his 
hand,  seized  the  fellow  by  the  coat-collar,  walked  him 
by  main  strength  to  the  door  and  flung  him  into  the 
passage,  saying,  "  Sir,  I  give  you  fair  warning  never  to 
show  yourself  in  this  room  again — I  can  bear  censure, 
but  not  insult  !"  Once  at  least,  when  some  rebel 
women  were  impudent  to  him,  he  ordered  them  per 
emptorily  to  be  shown  out  of  the  house. 

DESPOXDEXCY. 

The  profound  despondency  wThich  sometimes  seized 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  no  disproof  either  of  his  strength  and 
courage,  or  of  his  firm  faith  in  the  right.  Such  tempo 
rary  affections  were  in  part  constitutional — for  a  vein 
of  melancholy  ran  through  his  character — and  were  in 
part  the  result  of  the  long  and  terrible  draughts  of  the 
war  upon  his  physical  and  mental  forces.  One  day,  in 
the  midst  of  reports  from  the  Wilderness  battle-ground, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a  face,  tone,  and  manner  of  profound 
sadness  and  doubt,  said  to  one  of  his  personal  and  polit 
ical  friends,  "  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  in  view 
of  the  bad  fortune  that  we  have  suffered  so  often  and 
so  long,  and  in  such  important  instances,  it  may  be  that 
after  all  we  are  perhaps  in  the  wrong  ?  That  the  Lord 
is  showing  us  that  we  are  wrong  ?"  And  the  friend 
answered  him  with  similar  sentiments,  "  Yes,  it  has,  a 


70  THE   PICTURE   AND   TIIE   MEN. 

great  many  times."  Yet  such  feelings  never  varied  the 
direct  line  of  his  public  policy  or  of  his  public  utterances. 

INDUSTRY PERSEVERANCE. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  industrious  and  persevering.  In 
deed,  like  other  self-made  men,  had  he  not  possessed  a 
remarkable  share  of  those  qualities,  he  would  have  re 
mained  obscure.  He  was  almost  as  poor  as  poor  can 
be.  His  father's  whole  estate,  when  they  removed  to 
Indiana,  was  worth  just  about  8300,  and  two  thirds  of 
this  was  lost  by  a  capsize  in  the  river  while  moving. 
The  boy  grew  up  in  a  sheer  necessity  of  severe,  un 
taught  hard  labor.  In  this  his  strength  was  consumed. 
His  whole  "  education"  covered  just  over  one  year  of 
school  attendance,  and  that  at  little  district  schools — and 
scatteringly,  here  a  little  and  there  less,  so  as  to  make  the 
total  as  ineffective  as  possible.  But  with  his  own  delib 
erate  slow  strength,  he  toiled  with  immense  toil  after 

O          ' 

what  he  felt  was  lacking.  Reading  whatever  good  books 
he  could  grasp,  he  wrote  out  a  careful  analysis  of  each 
after  finishing  it — a  task  which  few  would  ever  begin, 
and  only  the  fewest  of  the  few  would  ever  continue  or 
complete.  Pollard  Simmons,  a  work-fellow  with  him 
in  his  youth,  thus  reported  of  him  on  this  point,  in  1856 
or  thereabout :  "  Abe  Lincoln  was  the  likeliest  boy  in 
God's  world.  He  would  work  all  day  as  hard  as  any 
of  us,  and  study  by  fire-light  in  the  log-house  half  the 
night,  and  in  this  way  he  made  himself  a  thorough 
practical  surveyor." 

He  passed  one  summer  and  fall  as  "  hired  man"  with 
a  Mr.  Armstrong ;  and  his  earnest  and  diligent  studies 
during  that  time  so  pleased  his  employer  as  to  produce 


LINCOLN.  71 

an  offer  to  keep  the  youth  through  the  winter,  while  he 
should  continue  at  work  at  his  books.  The  offer  was 
accepted,  though  only  on  condition  that  the  boarder 
should  work  enough  to  pay  for  his  board. 

He  always  remained  deeply  conscious  of  the  serious 
misfortune  of  his  early  lack  of  culture ;  and  with  the 
same  steady,  deliberate,  ceaseless  effort  sought  to  make 
up  for  it.  He  was  "  always  thinking,"  the  Illinois  law 
yers  said  ;  and  he  was  reckoned  an  "  improving  man." 
From  the  time  of  his  election  to  the  Presidency  he 
never  knew  what  real  rest  or  leisure  was,  but  laboring 
up  to  the. limit  of  his  strength  and  far  beyond  it,  he 
toiled  straight  forward,  though  conscious  that  he  was 
exhausting  himself.  He  had  a  distinct  presentiment, 
which  he  avowed  to  more  than  one  friend,  that  ho 
would  not  outlive  the  rebellion,  and  he  felt  plainly  that 
his  labors  were  exhausting  him.  He  had  no  fear  of 
being  murdered,  and  he  undoubtedly  felt  that  he  was 
drying  up  the  springs  of  his  life  by  labor.  He  grew 
over-tired,  wiry  and  powerful  and  enduring  as  he  was. 
He  remarked  that  such  snatches  of  repose  as  he  got 
"  never  reached  the  tired  spot."  During -the  last  two 
years  of  his  life,  the  progress  of  this  exhaustion  was 
shown  "by  the  perceptible  coming  on  and  increase  of  a 
certain  nervous  irritability,  very  far  from  his  habitual 
quiet,  easy  kindliness  of  manner.  But  fresh  or  weary, 
his  steady  industry  never  once  failed. 

KINDNESS. 

It  seems  scarcely  possible  for  any  human  being  to 
have  been  more  thoroughly  friendly,  kindly,  and  free 
from  hatred,  revenge,  jealousy,  or  ill-wishing  than  was 


72  THE    PICTURE    AND   THE    MEN. 

Mr.  Lincoln.  To  many  a  woman  and  child,  great  and 
small,  he  was  the  same  sweet-minded  and  beneficently 
disposed  man.  Doubtless  he  wished  as  well  to  the  rich 
and  great  as  to  the  poor  and  helpless,  but  very  natu 
rally  he  found  more  good  opportunities  to  help  the  lat 
ter,  and  more  of  them  have  been  put  on  record. 

The  teacher  of  the  Mission  School  at  the  Five  Points 
House  of  Industry,  in  New  York  city,  has  given  the 
following  enthusiastic  account  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  bearing 
even  among  children.  It  is  a  narrative  of  his  visit  to 
the  school  during  his  Eastern  campaigning  trip  in  1860. 
"  Our  Sunday-school,"  says  the  teacher,  "  in  the  Five 
Points  wras  assembled  one  Sabbath  morning,  when  I 
noticed  a  tall,  remarkable-looking  man  enter  the  room 
and  take  a  seat  among  us.  He  listened  with  fixed  at 
tention  to  our  exercises,  and  his  countenance  expressed 
such  genuine  interest  that  I  approached  him  anct  sug 
gested  that  he  might  be  willing  to  say  something  to 
the  children.  He  accepted  the  invitation  with  evident 
pleasure  ;  and  coming  forward,  began  a  simple  address 
which  at  once  fascinated  every  little  hearer  and  hushed 
the  room  into  silence.  His  language  was  strikingly 
beautiful,  and  his  tones  musical  with  intensest  feeling. 
The  little  faces  around  him  would  droop  into  sad  con 
viction  as  he  uttered  sentences  of  warning,  and  would 
lighten  into  sunshine  as  he  spoke  cheerful  words  of 
promise.  Once  or  twice  he  attempted  to  close  his  re 
marks  ;  but  the  imperative  shout  of  '  go  on !  oh,  do  go 
on  !'  would  compel  him  to  resume.  As  I  looked  upon 
the  gaunt  and  sinewy  frame  of  the  stranger,  and  mark 
ed  his  powerful  head  and  determined  features,  now 
touched  into  softness  by  the  impressions  of  the  moment, 


LINCOLN. 


73 


I  felt  an  irrepressible  curiosity  to  learn  something  more 
about  him ;  and  when  he  was  quietly  leaving  the  room 
I  begged  to  know  his  name.  He  courteously  replied, 
*  It  is  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  Illinois.'  " 

Mr.  Lincoln  loved  children  and  babies  with  a  love 
much  like  that  which  women  have  for  them.  A  woman 
whose  husband  wras  to  be  unjustly  shot,  had  waited, 
her  baby  in  her  arms,  for  three  days,  in  the  President's 
ante-room,  when  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  leaving  his  office  ibr 
some  refreshment,  heard  the  child  cry.  He  went 
straight  back  to  the  office,  rang  the  bell  for  his  usher, 
and  said,  "  Daniel,  is  there  a  woman  with  a  baby  in  the 
ante-room  ?"  The  usher  said  there  was,  and — know 
ing  what  was  the  poor  woman's  case — he  added  that 
her  errand  was  one  of  life  and  death,  and  that  he 
ought  to  see  her.  He  ordered  her  instantly  in ;  she  told 
her  story,  and  her  husband  was  pardoned.  As  she 
came  out  of  the  room  with  her  eyes  lifted  up,  her 
lips  moving  in  prayer,  the  tears  streaming  down  her 
cheeks,  old  Daniel  plucked  her  shawl  and  told  her 
who  was  her  advocate.  "  Madam,"  said  he,  "  it  was 
the  baby  that  did  it." 

One  of  the  editors  of  the  Chicago  Tribune  says  :  "  I 
dropped  in  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  and  found  him  busily  en 
gaged  in  counting  greenbacks.  '  This,  sir,'  said  he,  '  is 
something  out  of  my  usual  line  ;  but  a  President  of  the 
United  States  has  a  multiplicity  of  duties  not  specified 
in  the  Constitution  or  Acts  of  Congress.  This  is  one 

O 

of  them.  This  money  belongs  to  a  poor  negro,  who  is 
a  porter  in  the  Treasury  Department,  and  at  present 
very  sick  with  small-pox.  He  is  now  in  the  hospital, 
and  could  not  draw  his  pay  because  he  could  not  sign 


74:  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

his  name.  I  have  been  at  considerable  trouble  to  over 
come  the  difficulty  and  get  it  for  him ;  and  have  at 
length  succeeded  in  "  cutting  the  red  tape,"  as  you  news 
paper  men  say.  I  am  dividing  the  money  and  putting 
by  a  portion  labeled  in  an  envelope,  according  to  his 
wish.' "  More  than  once  he  helped  poor  clients,  not 
only  with  free  advice,  but  with  gifts  of  money.  Dur 
ing  his  great  debates  with  Douglas,  the  two  contest 
ants,  with  equally  creditable  good  sense  and  good  feel 
ing,  rode  together  to  or  from  their  appointments  in  the 
same  vehicle,  chatting  as  pleasantly  as  if  instead  of 
trying  each  to  get  into  the  Senate  and  keep  the  other 
out,  they  were  old  friends  meeting  by  pleasant  chance. 
The  innate,  irresistible,  completely  instinctive  char 
acter  of  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is,  perhaps,  most 
strongly  shown  where  it  made  him  simply  incapable  of 
acquiescing  in  or  inflicting  suffering  at  such ;  the  inr 
pulse  being  as  unreasoning  as  that  which  makes  a 
person  jump  away  from  a  scald  with  boiling  water. 
Riding  an  Illinois  circuit  one  day,  he  found  a  pig, 
struggling  in  some  deep  mud,  and  evidently  nearly  ex 
hausted  ;  the  sight  hurt  him,  but  having  on  a  new  suit 
of  clothes,  he  reluctantly  rode  on.  But  piggy  had 
got  hold  of  the  lawyer's  heart-strings ;  the  farther  he 
went  the  more  uneasy  he  became,  and  at  the  end  of  two 
miles  he  turned  round,  rode  back,  made  a  bridge  of 
rails  out  into  the  mud,  dug  out  the  pig,  and  then  resum 
ed  his  journey,  with  very  muddy  clothes,  but  with  his 
mind  at  ease.  As  characteristic  as  the  kindness,  was 
the  self-analysis  that  followed.  He  fell  to  considering 
what  his  motive  had  been.  At  first  he  said  to  himself 
that  it  was  benevolence;  but  he  concluded  in  the  end 


LINCOLN.  75 

that  it  was  selfishness ;  for  he  rescued  the  pig,  he  said, 
"  in  order  to  take  a  pain  out  of  his  own  mind." 

This  irresistible  shrinking  from  inflicting  or  allowing 
suffering,  no  matter  for  what  purpose,   was  perhaps 
more  strikingly  exemplified  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  practice 
about   the   pardon   of  deserters   and  other  convicted 
criminals,  and  on  the  military  question  of  retaliation, 
than  in  any  other  case.     The  real  justice  of  the  case, 
the  military  bearings  of  it,  the  result  of  the  decision  on 
society,  or  the  influence  of  his  action  on  others  tempted 
to   imitate   the   offense,  seemed   to   be  considerations 
almost  without  weight  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind,  in  com 
parison  with  his  invincible  reluctance  to  inflict  pain. 
The  instinct  was  as  unreasoning  as  would  be  that  of 
a  surgeon  who  should  refuse  to  cut  off  a  limb  from 
dread  of  giving  pain,  even  though  the  pain  would  save 
a  life.     Judge  Bates  said  that  he  had  sometimes  told 
Mr.  Lincoln  that  he  was  unfit  to  .be  trusted  with  the 
pardoning  power,  because  he  was  so  sure  to  be  over- 
persuaded   by   beseechings,    and   particularly   by  the 
prayers  and  tears  of  women.     Secretary  Stanton  and 
the  generals  in  the  field  were  often  much  vexed  at  hav 
ing  Mr.  Lincoln  mitigating  or  remitting  punishments 
which  they  felt  were  indispensable  for  the  good  of  the 
service.     A  well-executed  representation  of  the  sorrow 
of  a  deserter's  or  criminal's  friends  was  all  but  certain 
to  save  the  delinquent's  life,  and  of  course  the  result 
often  was  to  turn  a  hardened  scoundrel  loose  to  prey 
on  the 'community.     When  Mr.  Colfax  had  specially 
urged  the  sparing  of  the  life  of  a  son  of  a  certain  con 
stituent  of  the  Speaker's,  about  to  be  shot  for  desertion, 
the  President  said,  "Some  of  our  generals  complain 


T6  THE    PICTURE    AND   THE    MEN. 

that  I  impair  discipline  and  subordination  in  the  army 
by  my  pardons  and  respites,  but  it  makes  me  rested, 
after  a  hard  day's  work,  if  I  can  find  some  good  excuse 
for  saving  a  man's  life,  and  I  go  to  bed  happy  as  I  think 
how  joyous  the  signing  of  my  name  will  make  him  and 
his  family  and  friends."  After  pardoning,  on  his 
mother's  solicitation,  a  man  condemned  to  death,  the 
President  said :  "  Perhaps  I  have  done  wrong,  but  at 
all  events  I  have  made  that  poor  woman  happy." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  doing  such  deeds  transfigured 
the  gaunt  and  homely  President  into  an  angel  of  light 
in  the  eyes  of  those  whom  he  was  blessing.  On  the 
recommendation  of  Mr.  Stevens,  he  had  one  day  given 
to  an  old  lady  a  pardon  for  her  son.  In  leaving  the 
White  House,  with  Mr.  Stevens,  the  old  lady  all  at 
once  cried  out,  in  an  excited  way,  "  I  knew  it  was  a 
copperhead  lie  !"  "  What,  madam  ?"  asked  her  com 
panion.  "  Why,"  she  exclaimed  again,  with  vehemence, 
"  they  told  me  he  was  an  ugly-looking  man.  He  is  the 
handsomest  man  I  ever  saw  in  my  life  !" 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  some  idea  of  his  own  weakness  in 
this  particular.  In  a  case  of  application  to  pardon  a 
man  of  previous  good  character,  but  sentenced  for 
manslaughter,  the  President  replied,  "  Well,  gentlemen, 
leave  your  papers,  and  I  will  have  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral,  Judge  Bates,  look  them  over,  and  we  will  see 
what  can  be  done.  Being  both  of  us  pigeon-hearted 
fellows,  the  chances  are  that  if  there  is  any  ground 
whatever  for  interference,  the  scoundrel  will  get*  off." 

Even  when  the  infliction  of  suffering  was  the  only 
and  the  sure  way  of  saving  far  greater  suffering,  Mr. 
Lincoln  could  not  do  it.  One  of  his  generals  found 


LINCOLN.  77 

that  deserters  could  not  be  shot,  though  desertion  was 
actually  seriously  weakening  the  army ;  and  he  went 
to  Washington  and  said  so.  "Mr.  President,"  he 
urged,  "  unless  these  men  are  made  an  example  of,  the 
army  itself  is  in  danger.  Mercy  to  the  few  is  cruelty 
to  the  many."  "Mr.  General,"  said  the  President, 
"  there  are  already  too  many  weeping  widows  in  the 
United  States.  For  God's  sake  don't  ask  me  to  add  to 
the  number,  for  I  won't  do  it."  When  ample  and 
authenticated  news  was  laid  before  him  of  the  tortur 
ing  of  our  men  to  death  by  slow  starvation  in  the  rebel 
prisons,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  profoundly  moved.  It  was 
urged  upon  him,  and  justly  too,  that  the  only  possible 
remedy  was  prompt  and  stern  retaliation.  But  he  said 
to  Mr.  Odell,  "  I  can  never,  never  starve  men  like  that. 
Whatever  others  may  say  or  do,  I  never  can,  and  I 
never  will  be  accessory  to  such  treatment  of  human 
beings."  Even  further :  after  the  awful  devilism  of  the 
Fort  Pillow  massacre,  and  when  in  a  speech  at  the 
Baltimore  Fair  he  had  pledged  himself  in  public  that 
there  should  be  a  retaliation  for  it,  yet  no  step  or  move 
toward  retaliation  was  ever  taken.  For  Mr.  Lincoln 
it  was  simply  an  impossibility.  The  extreme  extent  of 
this  incapacity  was  assuredly  a  defect  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
character ;  but  over-kindliness  is  not  the  fault  which  has 
done  most  evil  in  this  world.  Mr.  Bates,  in  a  conver 
sation  with  Mr.  Carpenter,  once  referred  to  this  trait  as 
the  single  flaw  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  character.  "  Mr. 
Lincoln,"  he  said,  *'  comes  very  near  being  a  perfect 
man,  according  to  my  ideal  of  manhood.  He  lacks 
but  one  thing."  "  Is  that  official  dignity  as  Presi 
dent  ?"  inquired  the  painter.  "No,"  was  the  reply, 


78  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

"  that  is  of  little  consequence.  His  deficiency  is  in  the 
element  of  will."  But  this  is  not  exactly  the  way  to 
state  it.  The  defect  was  based  on  two  things :  a  too 
small  faculty  for  feeling  anger,  and  a  too  great  and 
sensitive  faculty  for  feeling  the  sufferings  of  others.  He 
had  will  enough,  but  these  two  mental  characteristics, 
standing  behind  the  will,  fixed  it  immovably  in  a  reso 
lution  that  he  "  never  could  and  never  would"  do  such 
and  such  things. 

SIMPLICITY,    UNAFFECTEDNESS. 

A  very  prominent  trait  in  Mr.  Lincoln  was  his  entire 
freedom  from  pride,  affectation,  assumption,  or  show  of 
any  kind.  His  ways  were  singularly  unconscious,  and 
even  when  any  fact  or  characteristic  of  himself  came  in 
question,  he  recognized  it  or  stated  it  exactly  as  it  was, 
the  mere  fact  appearing  to  be  all  that  he  required. 
He  seemed  not  to  remember,  or  at  least  not  to  care,  how 
the  statement  of  the  fact  was  going  to  make  him  ap 
pear.  One  exception  to  this  rule  is  on  record ;  it  was 
about  his  duel  with  General  Shields.  This  duel  was 
one  of  that  numerous  class  of  duels  that  did  not  happen ; 
it  only  went  so  far  as  the  sending  of  a  challenge  by  the 
hot-blooded  Irishman  and  its  acceptance  by  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  who  took  the  responsibility  rather  than  allow  the 
authorship  of  certain  satirical  verses  to  be  charged  to 
the  real  writer,  a  young  lady,  afterward  Mrs.  Lincoln. 
Mr.  Lincoln  chose  broadswords  as  the  weapons,  because 
his  arms  were  long,  and  he  reckoned  he  could  keep 
Shields  off;  but  friends  interposed  on  the  ground,  and 
a  reconciliation  was  effected.  Long  afterward,  at  Wash 
ington,  during  the  February  before  his  death,  a  distin- 


LINCOLN.  79 

guished  army  officer,  being  at  the  White  House,  asked 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  conversation,  "  Is  it  true,  Mr.  President, 
as  I  have  heard,  that  you  once  went  out  to  fight  a  duel 
for  the  sake  of  the  lady  by  your  side  ?"  The  President's 
face  flushed,  and  he  replied  with  a  good  deal  of  warmth, 
"  I  do  not  deny  it ;  but  if  you  desire  my  friendship  you 
will  never  mention  the  circumstance  again." 

But  Mr.  Lincoln's  total  indifference — whether  natural, 
or  acquired,  or  both — to  the  defects  of  his  homely  per 
son,  was  a  more  characteristic  illustration  of  his  general 
manner  as  to  himself;  he  joked  and  told  stories-  about 
himself  exactly  as  he  did  about  anybody  else.  When 
all  ready  for  a  state  dinner,  he  held  up  his  hands,  all 
"in  pimlico"  with  white  kids,  and  said  with  a  laugh, 
"  There's  one  of  my  Illinois  friends  who  never  sees  my 
hands  in  that  predicament  without  being  reminded  of 
canvassed  hams !"  He  used  to  tell  the  following  story, 
and  to  enjoy  it,  too :  "  In  the  days  when  I  used  to  bo 
on  the  circuit,  I  was  once  accosted  in  the  cars  by  a 
stranger,  who  said,  'Excuse  me,  sir,  but  I  have  an 
article  in  my  possession-  which  belongs  to  you.'  *  How 
is  that?'  I  asked,  considerably  astonished.  The  stranger 
took  a  jack-knife  from  his  pocket.  *  This  knife,'  he  said, 
*  was  placed  in  my  hands  some  years  ago,  with  the  in- 
junction  that  I  was  to  keep  it  until  I  found  a  man 
uglier  than  myself.  I  have  carried  it  from  that  time 
to  this.  Allow  me  now  to  say,  sir,  that  I  think  you 
are  fairly  entitled  to  the  property.'  " 

It  was  with  genuine  fun  and  enjoyment  that  when 
Mr.  Carpenter  was  first  introduced  to  him,  Mr.  Lincoln 
teased  him  with  the  sudden  question,  "  Do  you  thinjc 
you  can  make  a  handsome  picture  of  me  fn 


80  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

When  a  foreign  minister  is  presented  to  the  Presi 
dent,  a  speech  is  usually  prepared  for  the  President 
to  make,  by  the  person  in  charge  of  foreign  relations, 
i.  e.,  the  Secretary  of  State.  One  day  a  green  clerk 
was  sent  over  with  such  a  speech,  and  finding  several 
public  men  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  came  close  up  and 
said  softly,  as  one  does  who  wants  to  cover  up  the  ig 
norance  of  another, "  The  Secretary  has  sent  the  speech 
you  are  to  make  to-day  to  the  Swiss  minister."  But 
the  President  answered  in  a  loud  tone,  to  the  horror  of 
the  poor  clerk,  "Oh,  this  is  a  speech  Mr.  Seward  has 
written  for  me,  is  it  ?  I  guess  I  will  try  it  before  these 
gentlemen,  and  see  how  it  goes  !"  So  he  read  it  out 
with  comical  tones,  and  observed  slyly  at  the  end, 
"  There !  I  like  that.  It  has  the  merit  of  originality  !" 

When  Mr.  Chase  withdrew  from  the  canvass  of  1864, 
a  good  deal  of  public  interest  was  excited  by  an  edi 
torial  statement  in  the  New  York  Independent,  that 
Mr.  Chase  wrote  the  concluding  paragraph  of  the 
Proclamation.  A  friend  who  thought  that  perhaps  Mr. 
Chase  had  had  the  bad  taste  to  set  the  story  afloat, 
went  to  see  the  President  about  it.  "  Oh,"  Mr.  Lincoln 
said,  "  Mr.  Chase  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  I  think  I 
mentioned  the  circumstance  to  Mr.  Tilton  myself." 
He  had  taken  the  best  sentence  he  knew  of  to  end  the 
Proclamation  with,  adding  two  or  three  words,  and  was 
simply  well  pleased  to  have  it  credited  to  its  author. 

He  never  seemed  to  have  any  idea  that  his  being 
President  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  treat  others 
differently,  or  to  be  treated  differently  by  them,  except 
so  far  as  business  or  public  interests  made  it  necessary. 
When  a  poor  man  came  to  him  in  the  grounds  of  the 


LINCOLN.  81 

White  House  with  a  trouble  to  be  remedied,  he  bor 
rowed  card  and  pencil  of  by-standers,  sat  down  on  the 
stone  coping  of  the  next  fence  and  wrote  the  order 
necessary  to  help  the  applicant.  Some  who  stood  by 
smiled  at  the  informality  of  the  attitude;  his  mind 
was  simply  bent  on  doing  the  right  thing  in  the  quick 
est  way.  This  unceremoniousness  of  his  was  well  exem 
plified  in  his  reply  to  Lord  Lyons,  the  bachelor  English 
minister,  at  the  state  audience  where  the  British  noble 
man  announced  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
Any  one  whatever  of  the  other  sixteen  Presidents  of 
the  United  States  would  have  uttered  a  formal  series 
of  congratulations ;  it  is  not  improbable  that  Mr.  Lin 
coln  had  one,  with  what  he  once  jocularly  called  "  some 
of  Seward's  poetry"  in  it,  neatly  drafted  by  the  Secre 
tary,  all  ready  in  his  "coat-tail  pocket  at  the  time.  But 
the  President  replied  as  friendly  man  to  man,  "  Lord 
Lyons,  go  thou  and  do  likewise  !" 

Mr.  Raymond  well  states  this  curious  want  of  any 
sense  of  official  importance  in  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  says, 
"  It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  find  another 
man  who  would  not,  upon  a  sudden  transfer  from  the  ob 
scurity  of  private  life  in  a  country  town  to  the  dignities 
and  duties  of  the  Presidency,  feel  it  incumbent  upon 
him  to  assume  something  of  the  manner  and  tone  be 
fitting  that  position.  Mr.  Lincoln  never  seemed  to  be 
aware  that  his  place  or  his  business  'were  essentially 
different  from  those  in  which  he  had  always  been  en 
gaged.  He  brought  to  every  question — the  loftiest  and 
most  imposing — the  same  patient  inquiry  into  details, 
the  same  eager  longing  to  know  and  to  do  exactly 
what  was  just  and  right,  and  the  same  working-day, 
6 


82  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

plodding,  laborious  devotion,  which  characterized  his 
management  of  a  client's  case  at  his  law  office  in 
Springfield." 

FORESIGHT. 

Remarkable  care  and  thoughtful  guardedness  of 
language  are  striking  features  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  state 
papers ;  their  assertions  and  provisions  were  prepared 
with  successful  caution  against  any  unnecessary  colli 
sion  with  future  events.  Mr.  Lincoln's  greatest  exhi 
bition  of  this  quality,  however,  was  displayed  in  his 
early,  clear,  and  positive  understanding  of  the  true  scope 
and  bearings  of  the  political  struggle  which  ended  in 
the  rebellion,  both  as  a  national  matter  and  as  restricted 
to  Illinois.  His  speech  at  Springfield,  in  June,  1858, 
on  accepting  the  nomination  to  the  United  States 
Senate  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Douglas,  was  a  remarkable 
instance  of  political  foresight  and  intrepid  plain  speak 
ing.  This  was  the  speech  in  which  he  avowed,  "  I  believe 
this  government  can  not  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free,"  and  showed  how  Mr.  Douglas  and  his 
party  were  steadily  advancing  toward  legalizing  slavery 
in  all  States  of  the  Union.  The  bold  avowals  of  this 
speech,  like  the  great  Proclamation  which  answered 
and  decided  its  suggestions  four  years  after,  was  delib 
erately  prepared  without  consultation  with  any  of  his 
friends,  and  was  only  shown  to  his  law  partner,  Mr. 
Herndon,  just  before  the  hour  of  delivery;  and  it  a 
good  deal  startled  and  a  little  frightened  many  of  the 
speaker's  friends  by  stating  then  the  views  and  doc 
trines  which  all  patriots  came  swiftly  up  to,  a  couple  of 
years  later. 


LINCOLN.  83 

In  a  smaller  matter,  in  this  same  campaign,  Mr.  Lin 
coln  showed  equal  shrewdness  and  justness  of  insight. 
In  the  "  seven  debates"  of  that  senatorial  contest 
between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  the  latter  had  amused 
himself  with  a  series  of  questions  intended  to  plant 
Mr.  Lincoln  by  means  of  his  own  answers  upon  an  un 
popular  anti-slavery  platform.  By  the  answers,  how 
ever,  Mr.  Lincoln  told  the  truth  and  avowed  his  true 
position,  without  becoming  unpopular ;  for  the  fact  is, 
that  in  that  controversy  Mr.  Douglas  totally  failed  to 
discern  the  signs  of  the  times ;  he  did  not  see  at  all 
how  the  North  was  abolitionizing-  itself  by  a  perfectly 
natural  reaction  against  the  aggressive  measures  of  the 
South.  After  answering  Mr.  Douglas'  questions,  Mr. 
Lincoln  squared  the  account  by  proposing  some  in  his 
turn,  which  were  so  framed  that  Judge  Douglas  was 
forced  to  answer  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to  show  that 
hie  own  "  popular  sovereignty"  doctrine  would  upset 
the  effect  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  the  Territories. 
The  question  was  this  :  "  Can  the  people  of  a  United 
States  Territory,  in  any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish 
of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery 
from  its  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  State  Consti 
tution  ?"  When  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends  found  what  he 
was  going  to  ask,  they  begged  him  to  refrain  ; ."  for," 
they  said,  "  he  will  show  that  his  doctrine  of  "  squatter 
sovereignty"  will  nullify  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  will 
thus  satisfy  public  opinion  on  that  point,  and  will  be 
chosen  senator."  "  That  may  be,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln ; 
"  but  if  he  takes  that  shoot  he  never  can  be  President." 
"  But,"  they  rejoined,  "  that  is  not  your  look-out.  You 
arc  after  the  senatorship."  "  Xo,  gentlemen,"  was  the 


84:  THE   PICTURE   AND  THE  MEN. 

reply,  "  I  am  killing  larger  game.  The  battle  of  1860 
is  worth  a  hundred  of  this."  The  point  is  perfectly 
clear  now  :  if  Douglas'  answer  should  assert  the  power 
of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  to  establish  slavery  in  ter 
ritories,  his  Presidential  vote  in  the  North  was  gone ; 
if  he  denied  it,  or  even  showed  how  to  dodge  it  by 
means  of  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  the  vote  in  the  South 
was  gone — or  at  least  fatally  weakened ;  and  this  last 
is  exactly  what  happened.  It  is  all  clear  now  ;  but  it 
required  very  clear  sight  and  very  strong  faith  to  see 
it  so  plainly  and  act  upon  it  so  decisively  two  years  in 
advance. 

MELANCHOLY. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  strong  enjoyment  of  fun  and  humor 
did  not  prevent  his  character  from  being  distinctly 
marked  with  a  deep  vein  of  melancholy,  a  tendency  to 
which  is  not  unusual  in  persons  of  his  physical  charac 
teristics.  All  his  biographers  agree  upon  this  natural 
tendency ;  and  the  dreadful  responsibility  and  exhaust 
ing  labor  of  the  war  aggravated  it.  The  risk  of  assas 
sination  does  not  seem  to  have  troubled  him  at  all,  and 
yet  a  steady  presentiment  appears  to  have  gradually 
settled  upon  him  that  he  should  not  survive  the  war. 
"  Whichever  way  it  ends,"  he  said  to  Mrs.  Stowe,  "  I 
have  the  impression  that  I  shall  not  last  long  after  it  is 
over."  To  another  friend  he  said :  "  I  feel  a  presenti 
ment  that  I  shall  not  outlast  the  rebellion.  When  it  is 
over,  my  work  will  be  done."  Indeed,  he  is  said  to 
have  expressed  the  same  expectation  to  Mr.  Lovejoy, 
and  to  other  of  his  friends.  But  he  was  sad,  even  with 
out  this  dim  cloud  of  death  hanging  half  visibly  over 
him.  One  morning,  after  receiving  some  bad  news, 


LINCOLN.  85 

Mr.  Lincoln  met  Mr.  Colfax,  and  told  him,  adding  that 
he  had  neither  slept  nor  breakfasted,  and  exclaim 
ed,  "  How  willingly  would  I  exchange  places  to-day 
with  the  soldier  who  sleeps  on  the  ground  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  !"  This  occasional  despondency  was 
like  the  similar  feelings  that  more  than  once  overpow 
ered  General  Washington,  and  the  similarity  even  runs 
into  expressions.  Almost  exactly  the  same  thought 
was  expressed  by  Washington  in  the  dark  days  of  the 
Revolution,  when  he  said  to  a  friend,  "  Such  is  my  sit 
uation,  that  If  1  were  to  wish  the  bitterest  curse  to  an 
enemy  this  side  of  the  grave,  I  should  put  him  in  my 
stead  with  my  feelings." 

When  on  one  occasion  Mr.  Lincoln  was  most  strenu 
ously  begged  by  an  energetic  lady  for  a  soldiers'  hospital 
in  her  own  State,  at  the  North,  she  enforced  her  argu 
ments  by  saying,  "  If  you  will  grant  my  petition,  you 
will  be  glad  as  long  as  you  live."  In  answer,  the 
lady  says,  *'  The  President  bowed  his  head,  and  with  a 
look  of  sadness  which  it  is  impossible  for  language  to 
describe,  said,  * I shall  never  be  glad  any  more?"  In 
reply,  she  urged  that  of  all  men  he  would  have  most 
reason  to  be  glad ;  but  he  answered,  "I  know,  I  know" — 
and  he  pressed  his  hand  on  his  side — "  but  the  springs 
of  life  are  wearing  away,  and  I  shall  not  last." 

Mr.  Carpenter  repeatedly  speaks  of  the  sadness  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  face.  "  In  repose,"  he  remarks,  "  it  was 
the  saddest  face  I  ever  knew.  There  were  days  when  I 
could  scarcely  look  into  it  without  crying."  And  the 
same  trait  is  shown  by  his  literary  preferences  on  the 
serious  side.  Shakspeare,  whose  wonderful  union  of 
sadness  and  mirth  was  so  much  like  Mr.  Lincoln's  own, 


86  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

was  his  favorite  author ;  and  Hamlet,  the  most  thought 
fully  melancholy  of  tragedies,  had  for  him  a  -peculiar 
charm.  The  poem,  "  Oh,  why  should  the  spirit  of  mor 
tal  be  proud  ?"  so  famous  as  a  favorite  composition  of 
his,  and  so  widely  believed  to  have  been  written  by 
him,  is  a  contemplation  of  the  shortness  and  vanity  of 
life.  He  once  repeated  to  Mr.  Carpenter  these  lines 
from  Holmes'  "Last  Leaf,"  as  "inexpressibly  touching :" 

"  The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  the  lips  that  he  has  pressed 

In  their  bloom ; 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  the  tomb." 

And  he  added,  "  For  pure  pathos,  in  my  judgment, 
there  is  nothing  finer  than  those  six  lines  in  the  En* 

O 

glish  language."  Here  again  it  is  observable  that  the 
author,  who  suited  him  so  well,  is  remarkable  for  that 
same  union  of  fun  and  sadness. 

KEL1GION. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  a  natural  tendency  toward  forms 
or  formality  in  religion  any  more  than  in  composing  a 
state  paper,  answering  an  announcement  of  the  mar 
riage  of  a  prince,  or  conducting  a  conversation.  But 
as  he  was  naturally  a  most  thorough  realist  or  believer 
in  the  substance  and  actual  facts  of  things,  so  was  he 
a  believer  in  the  Christian  religion,  and  a  doer,  to  the 
best  of  his  ability,  of  the  commands  thereof.  He  con 
sidered  himself  a  Christian,  too.  But  a  natural  secre- 
tiveness  or  disinclination  to  talk  about  what  interested 
him  most  profoundly,  kept  him  almost  always  silent  on 


LINCOLN.  87 

sucli  topics  ;  and  this  habit  was  probably  strengthened 
by  his  living  so  much  among  rough  people,  and  among 
sharp  lawyers  and  busy  politicians.  He  one  day  asked 
a  pious  woman  to  describe  a  true  Christian  experience. 
She  answered,  in  substance,  that  it  is  a  conviction  of 
one's  own  siufulness  and  weakness,  and  of  one's  per 
sonal  need  of  the  support  of  the  Saviour ;  the  feeling 
of  the  need  of  Divine  help  and  consequent  seeking  the 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  strength  and  guidance.  The 
President's  reply  was  a  very  distinct  avowal  of  his 
Christian  belief.  He  said :  "  If  what  you  have  told  me 
is  really  a  correct  view  of  this  great  subject,  I  think  I 
can  say  with  sincerity  that  I  hope  I  am  a  Christian.  I 
lived  until  my  boy  Willie  died  without  realizing  fully 
these  things.  That  blow  overwhelmed  me.  It  showed 
me  my  weakness  as  I  had  never  felt  it  before ;  and  if  I 
can  take  what  you  have  stated  as  a  test,  I  think  I  can 
safely  say  that  I  know  something  of  that  change  of 
which  you  speak ;  and  I  will  further  add,  that  "it  has 
been  my  intention  for  some  time,  at  a  suitable  oppor 
tunity,  to  make  a  public  religious  confession."  On  an 
other  occasion,  when  some  person  had  referred  to  the 
many  silent  and  unknown  prayers  daily  put  up  for  him, 
he  said,  after  referring  to  the  strength  which  he  had 
derived  from  believing  that  such  prayers  were  made — 
and  speaking  with  special  deliberation  and  solemnity — 
"  I  should  be  the  most  presumptuous  blockhead  upon 
•this  footstool,  if  I  for  one  day  thought  that  I  could 
discharge  the  duties  which  have  come  upon  me  since 
I  came  into  this  place,  without  the  aid  and  enlight* 
enment  of  One  who  is  stronger  a.n4  wiser  than  all 
others." 


88  THE   PICTURE   AND  THE   MEN. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  profound  sense  of  the  nearness  and 
efficient  action  of  God  was  impressively  shown  in  the 
manner  of  his  final  resolution  to  proclaim  Emancipa 
tion,  as  announced  at  the  Cabinet  meeting  where  it  was 
resolved  on.  lie  introduced  the  subject  at  that  meet 
ing  by  saying:  "The  time  for  the  announcement  of 
the  Emancipation  policy  can  no  longer  be  delayed. 
Public  sentiment,  I  think,  will  sustain  it — many  of  my 
warmest  friends  and  supporters  demand  it ;"  then  in  a 
lower  tone,  as  if  speaking  to  himself,  "  and  I  have 
promised  my  God  that  I  would  do  it."  Secretary 
Chase,  who  was  nearest  to  him,  was  the  only  one  who 
'heard  these  last  words  at  all,  and  he  asked  the  Presi 
dent  if  he  had  correctly  understood  him.  Mr.  Lincoln 
replied :  "  I  made  a  solemn  vow  before  God,  that  if  Gen 
eral  Lee  was  driven  back  from  Pennsylvania,  I  would 
crown  the  result  by  the  declaration  of  freedom  to  the 
slaves."  The  President's  daily  observance  of  family 
devotions  was  just  as  sincere  as  his  sanctioning  a  great 
public  act  by  a  vow  to  God.  The  captain  of  his  body 
guard,  Captain  Mix,  a  gentleman  of  culture  and  intelli 
gence,  said :  "  Many  times  have  I  listened  to  our  most 
eminent  preachers,  but  never  with  the  same  feelings  of 
awe  and  reverence  as  when  our  Christian  President, 
his  arm  around  his  son,  with  his  deep  earnest  tone,  each 
morning  read  a  chapter  from  the  Bible."  The  depth  of 
his  belief  in  the  Christian  God  appears  from  his  circu 
lar  of  November  16,  1862,  to  the  army,  against  Sab 
bath-breaking  ;  in  which  he  said,  "  The  discipline  and 
character  of  the  national  forces  should  not  suffer,  nor 
the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled,  by  the  profanation 
of  the  day,  or  of  the  name  of  the  Most  High." 


LINCOLN.  80 

MEMORY. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  the  same  sort  of  memory  for  faces 
and  names  which  is  said  to  exist  by  hereditary  descent 
and  centuries  of  practice  in  the  European  royal  families. 
While  President,  some  one  mentioned  to  him  a  Mr. 

C ;  "  I  have  known  him  now  for  almost  thirty  years," 

was  the  reply.     "My  first  board  bill  in  Springfield 

began  on  the  15th  of  April,  1837,  and  C came 

along  about  strawberry  time."  A  gentleman  on  shak 
ing  hands  with  him  one  day,  said,  "I  presume,  Mr. 
President,  that  you  have  forgotten  me  ?"  "  No,"  was 
the  answer;  "  your  name  is  Flood.  I  saw  you  last,  twelve 

years  ago,  at ,"  and  he  named  the  place  and  the 

occasion.  His  memory  for  miscellaneous  and  literary 
matter  was  almost  as  remarkable.  When  a  clerk  in 
Offutt's  grocery,  he  is  said  to  have  .been  able  to  repeat 
the  whole  of  Burns,  and  to  have  been  hard  at  work  in 
securing  Shakspeare  in  the  same  repository.  "While 
President,  he  repeated  on  a  casual  occasion  the  soliloquy 
in  Hamlet,  and  with  remarkable  justness  of  conception 
and  force  of  expression.  On  another  occasion  he  re 
peated  in  like  manner  the  opening  soliloquy  of  Richard 
the  Third,  and  gave  it  an  interpretation  and  significance 
quite  different  from  the  usual  one,  and  very  appropriate 
and  striking.  He  even  remembered,  sometimes,  the 
driest  statistics.  At  receiving  a  deputation  of  bankers 
from  several  parts  of  the  country,  he  observed  to  one 
of  them :  "  Your  district  did  not  give  me  so  strong  a 
vote  at  the  last  election  as  in  1866."  The  banker 
thought  the  President  was  in  error,  and  that  the  fact 
was  the  other  way.  "  No,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln, "  you  fell 
off  about  six  hundred  votes;"  and  taking  from  a  shelf, 


90  THE    PICTURE    AND    THE    MEN. 

the  official  canvasses  of  the  two  elections,  lie  turned  to 
the  name  of  the  district  and  showed  that  it  was  as  he 
Ba-id.  Only  a  very  powerful  memory,  moreover,  could 
have  retained  and  furnished  that  wonderful  river  of 
stories  which  ilowed  through  all  Mr.  Lincoln's  talk 
ing. 

ABSENCE    OF    MIND. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  frequently  so  absorbed  in  solicitous 
thought,  intense  mental  effort,  or,  in  the  years  of  his 
Presidency,  painful  re  very  or  sorrowful  reflection,  as  to 
become  quite  unconscious  of  his  surroundings.  This 
tendency  was  aided  by  his  natural  freedom  from  self- 
consciousness.  When  he  lived  at  New  Salem  he  used 
so  often  to  pass  his  most  intimate  friends  in  the  street 
without  noticing  them,  that  people  reckoned  him  crazy. 
He  often  sat  down  at  his  own  table  without  realizing 

O 

the  place  or  the  company,  and  ate  mechanically.  lie 
cared  for  eating,  indeed,  always,  about  as  little  as  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  and  was  far  better  pleased  to 
"browse  'round,"  as  he  called  it  one  day  at  Washington, 
than  to  sit  out  elaborate  state  dinners.  Once,  during  one 
of  the  official  hand-shaking  performances  at  Washing 
ton,  an  intimate  acquaintance  of  the  President  shook 
hands,  spoke,  and  was  saluted  in  the  usual  form,  but 
saw  that  he  was  not  recognized  at  all,  and  so  he  stopped 
short  a  moment  and  spoke  again.  This  waked  up  the 
President,  who  now  recognized  his  friend,  and  seizing 
his  hand,  shook  it  heartily,  exclaiming,  "  How  do  you 
do  ?  How  do  you  do  ?  Excuse  me  for  not  noticing 
you.  I  was  thinking  of  a  man  down  South."  This 
"  man  down  South"  was  General  Sherman,  who,  with 


LINCOLN.  91 

several  other  "  men,"  was  at  that  moment  making  a 
promenade  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea. 

IIUMOK. 

Decidedly  the  most  prominent  characteristic  of*  Mr. 
Lincoln's  mind  was  his  extreme  love  for  jokes,  wit, 
humor,  and  fun,  especially  for  "stories,"  and  he  is 
famous  for  the  immense  supply  of  the  latter  with 
which  he  used  on  all  occasions  to  illuminate  his  argu 
ments,  point  his  satire,  ornament  the  thread  of  conver 
sation,  or  occupy  any  corner  or  hint  on  which  a  simil 
itude  or  an  illustration  could  hang.  In  giving  a  general 
view  of  his  character,  a  few  of  his  stories  and  sayings, 
and  of  anecdotes  that  illustrate  his  love  of  mirthful 
.matter,  must  be  given.  To  repeat  all  of  them  would 
fill  a  large  book,  and  has  in  fact  already  filled  much 
larger  books  than  the  whole  of  this  one. 

As  early  as  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  in  1832,  Mr. 
Lincoln's  popularity  with  the  soldiers  of  his  company 
and  with  the  other  troops  of  the  command  was  attrib 
uted  to  his  "great  physical  strength,  his  excellent 
care  of  the  men  in  his  command,  his  never-failing  good 
nature,  and  his  ability  to  tell  more  stories  and  better 
ones  than  any  man  in  the  service.  This  strong  natural 
talent  was  most  powerfully  developed  during  Mr. 
Lincoln's  long  and  active  experience  among  the  lawyers 
and  politicians  of  Illinois ;  and  his  Presidential  career 
afforded  a  thick-coming  series  of  occasions  admitting  of 
illustration  by  all  possible  sorts  of  parables,  sayings, 
and  comparisons,  of  which  occasions  Mr.  Lincoln  took 
full  advantage.  We  all  remember  how  frequently  this 
trait  was  made  the  mark  for  all  manner  of  attacks, 


92  THE    PICTURE   AND   TDE  MEN. 

grave,  satirical,  and  scurrilous.  But  so  far  from  origin 
ating  in  light-mindedness,  frivolity,  or  badness  of  heart, 
the  fact  is  that  the  overburdened  and  heart-worn  Presi 
dent  used  the  momentary  relief  that  such  things  gave 
him.  *as  a  medicine,  a  rest,  as  he  %night  have  used  sleep, 
could  he  have  always  commanded  it.  Sleep  often  re 
fused  to  come ;  but  there  is  no  account  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
having  failed  to  have  a  story  whenever  he  wanted  it. 
His  old  friend  Mr.  Arnold  understood  this,  and  said 
one  day,  on  hearing  Mr.  Lincoln's  hearty  laugh :  "  That 
laugh  has  been  the  President's,  life-preserver."  Mr. 
Ashley,  an  Ohio  Congressman,  did  not  understand  the 
case  so  well  one  morning,  when  he  callecT"on  Mr.  Lin 
coln  just  after  one  of  the  disasters  of  the  summer  of 
1862.  The  President  began  to  tell  some  funny  story,  • 
when  Mr.  Ashley,  provoked,  rose  up,  saying,  "  Mr.  Presi 
dent,  I  did  not  come  here  this  morning  to  hear  stories. 
It  is  too  serious  a  time."  Without  irritation,  Mr.  Lin 
coln  at  once  answered,  with  entire  seriousness :  "  Ash 
ley,  sit  down.  I  respect  you  as  an  earnest,  sincere 
man.  You  can  not  be  more  anxious  than  I  have  been 
constantly  since  the  beginning  of  the  war ;  and  I  say 
to  you  now,  that  were  it  not  for  this  occasional  vent,  I 
should  die." 

He  always  kept  in  his  desk  the  latest  humorous  book 
of  the  day,  and  from  time  to  time,  when  fatigued  or 
troubled  beyond  endurance,  he  would  take  out  his  book 
and  read  a  chapter  or  two,  with  as  much  relief— and  of 
a  great  deal  better  kind — as  a  weary  toper  could  find 
in  his  glass  of  bitters.  One  evening,  when  he  was 
utterly  worn  out  with  office-seekers  over  and  above  his 
usual  heavy  business,  a  delegation  of  public  men  came 


LINCOLN.  93 

in,  having  matters  in  charge  which  required  much  at 
tention  and  the  examination  of  many  extensive  docu 
ments.  So,  as  if  to  stimulate  him  for  a  special  effort, 
the  President  took  a  dram — of  fun.  "  Have  you  seen 
the  Nasby  Papers  ?"  he  asked  one  of  the  party,  at  the 
same  time  shoving  all  the  documents  to  one  side. 
"  No,"  was  the  reply ;  "  who  is  Nasby  ?"  Mr.  Lincoln 
said  he  was  a  "  chap  out  in  Ohio,"  writing  in  the 
papers  with  the  signature  of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby ;  and, 
he  added,  "I  am  going  to  write  to  Petroleum  to  come 
down  here,  and  I  intend  to  tell  him  that  if  he  will  com 
municate  his  talent  to  me,  I  will  swap  places  with  him." 
So  he  took  out  the  pamphlet  collection  of  the  Nasby 
Papers,  and  read  a  chapter.  All  enjoyed  it ;  and  Mr. 
Lincoln,  refreshed  by  his  own  enjoyment  of  it,  and  by 
theirs,  too,  put  away  the  book,  and  instantly  coming 
back  to  business  and  seriousness,  took  up  the  matter  in 
hand  with  prompt  earnestness. 

Dr.  Holland  says  that  when  the  President  called  the 
Cabinet  together  to  hear  his  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion,  he  began  first  of  all  by  reading  a  whole  chapter 
from  "  Artemus  Ward,  his  Book,"  laughing  so  wholly 
and  heartily  at  Artemus'  nonsense  that  some  of  those 
present  were  much  pained.  If  they  were  so,  it  was 
merely  from  not  understanding  Mr.  Lincoln ;  for  as 
suredly  he  was  as  earnest  as  any  of  them  in  the  matter 
of  the  Great  Proclamation  itself.  Still,  few  men  could 
possibly  understand  that  singular  intimate  mingling  of 
humor  and  seriousness  without  injury  by  either  to  the 
other,  which  was  a  feature  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind,  un 
less  they  possessed  in  some  measure  the  same  combina 
tion  of  traits.  But  this  intermingling  was  very  com- 


94  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

pletc ;  it  was  promoted  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  want  of  what 
phrenology  calls  "  self-esteem,"  and  by  his  rough  West 
ern  life  among  men  who  are  no  respecters  of  persons  ; 
and  it  sometimes  occasioned  rather  startling  and  heter 
ogeneous  assortments  of  ideas  in  Mr,  Lincoln's  talk  as 
to  both  men  and  things.  When  Mr.  Cameron  left  the 
Cabinet,  certain  earnest  persons  wanted  others  to  leave 
too,  and  urged  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  it  so.  In  reply  he 
told  them  how  Joe  Wilson  found  that  skunks  were  de 
stroying  his  chickens,  and,  getting  excited,  went  out  one 
night  and  shot  one,  but  it  was  "  eleven  weeks  before 
he  got  over  killing  that  one,"  and  accordingly  gave  up 
the  hunt  for  the  rest.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Cam 
eron  were  very  good  friends,  and  he  did  not  at  all 
mean  that  he  thought  Mr.  Cameron  a  skunk  who  ought 
to  be  shot,  or  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet  skunks  that  it 
was  unsafe  to  hunt.  Exactly  like  this  in  style  was  the 
story  with  which  he  answered  some  gentlemen  who 
asked  what  he  would  do  with  Jeff.  Davis  ?  He  told 
them  of  a  boy  who  bought  a  "  coon"  and  led  him  about 
with  a  rope,  until  the  tormenting  creature  had  scratched 
half  his  clothes  offand  tired  him  completely  out.  When 
a  man  found  him  sitting  down,  miserable  and  unhappy, 
and  asked  him, "  Why  don't  you  get  rid  of  your  coon  ?" 
the  boy  answered,  "  Hush  !  don't  you  see  he's  gnawing 
his  rope  off?  I'm  going  to  let  him  do  it,  and  then  I'll 
cro  home  and  tell  the  folks  he  got  away  from  me!" 
When  Messrs.  Wade  and  Davis  published  their  violent 
manifesto  against  him,  he  said  it  was  not  worth  fretting 
about,  and  told  the  story  of  the  old  man  whose  son 
warned  him  not  to  eat  the  cheese,  for  it  was  full  of 
wrigglers.  "  Let  'em  wriggle,  my  son,"  said  the  old 


LINCOLN.  95 

gentleman,  chewing  away,  "  I  kin  stand  it  if  they  kin  !" 
When  he  was  urged  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  to 
send  a  great  fleet  down  South  to  draw  off  the  rebels 
from  before  Washington,  he  said  it  was  like  the  man's 
prescription  to  relieve  the  girl  at  New  Salem  who  had 
a  singing  in  her  head.  This  was  to  put  a  plaster  of 
psalm  tunes  on  her  feet  and  draw  the  singing  down. 
When  he  was  told  that  "  firing  had  been  heard  in  the 
direction  of  Knoxville,"  he  said  he  was  glad  of  it,  and 
wrhen  some  one  intimated  that  it  was  rather  singular  to 
be  glad  of  what  intimated  that  Burnside  wras  in  danger, 
he  said  that  he  was  like  Mistress  Sallie  Ward,  an  old 
neighbor  of  his,  with  a  good  many  children.  When 
one  of  her  young  folks  was  heard  crying,  off  in  some 
out-of-the-way  place,  she  would  remark,  "  There's  one 
of  my  children  that  isn't  dead  yet !"  The  parable  of 
the  man  who  declined  to  swap  horses  while  swimming 
a  river,  which  he  used  to  illustrate  the  risks  of  taking 
another  candidate  than  himself  in  1864,  is  known  to 
everybody.  Of  the  same  sort  was  his  answer  to  the 
inquiry  which  an  earnest  clerical  friend  made  in  the  first 
days  of  his  administration,  what  his  policy  was  going  to 
be  on  slavery.  "  Once,"  said  he,  "  a  young  Methodist 
preacher  was  worrying  in  the  presence  of  old  Father 
B.,  lest  a  freshet  in  Fox  River  should  prevent  him  from 
filling  some  of  his  appointments.  Father  B.  checked 
him  with  his  gravest  manner.  '  Young  man,'  said  the 
old  minister,  *  I  have  always  made  it  a  rule  in  my  life 
not  to  cross  Fox  River  until  I  got  to  it.'  And  I  am 
not  going  to  worry  myself  about  the  slavery  question 
until  I  get  to  it." 

The  same  perfect  fusion  of  joke  and  earnest,  meta- 


96  THE   PICTURE   AND    THE   MEN. 

phoric  illustration  and  weighty  truth,  was  shown  in  in 
numerable  repartees,  remarks,  and  comments  on  all  sorts 
of  occasions,  about  himself,  the  war,  politics,  anything 
that  came  np.  A  famous  definition  of  eloquence  is, 
"Logic,  red  hot."  Mr.  Lincoln's  idea  of  convincing 
was,  "  Truth,  made  funny."  It  was  almost  always  by 
similitudes,  in  one  form  or  another,  that  he  enforced 
his  meaning,  or -else  by  quaint  and  expressive  .meta 
phors  from  rustic  life  ;  more  rarely  in  the  form  of  wit. 
An  instance  of  the  latter  is  his  reply  to  the  clergyman 
who  "  hoped  the  Lord  was  on  our  side."  "  I  am  not 
concerned  about  that,"  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  answer,  "  for 
I  know  that  the  Lord  is  always  on  the  side  of  the  right. 
But  it  is  my  constant  anxiety  and  prayer  that  I  and 
this  nation  should  be  on  the  Lord's  side."  This  was  a 
good  specimen  of  grave  and  lofty  wit,  where  a  most 
weighty  truth  is  conveyed  in  a  keen  and  sharply  put 
antithesis.  There  was,  again,  a  somewhat  unusually 
satirical  edge  in  his  short  answer  to  an  anti-slavery  deL- 
egation  which  once  urged  upon  him  the  instant  adop 
tion  of  the  emancipation  policy,  and  whose  chairman, 
the  well-known  racy  preacher,  Rev.  Dr.  George  B. 
Cheever,  spiced  his  arguments,  after  his  manner,  with 
many  Old  Testament  quotations.  Mr.  Lincoln  heard  it 
all  through,  meditated  a  moment,  drew  a  long  breath, 
and  observed,  "  Well,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  often  that 
one  is  favored  with  a  delegation  direct  from  the  Al 
mighty  !" 

When  somebody  pressed  him  for  a  pass  to  go  through 
the  Union  lines  to  Richmond,  he  said  "  it  was  useless ; 
that  he  had  already  given  passes  to  four  hundred  thou 
sand  men  to  go  there,  and  not  one  had  got  there  unless 


LINCOLN. 


97 


he  was  carried."  A  civilian,  so  ignorant  of  military  af 
fairs  as  not  even  to  know  what  appointment  he  wanted, 
sent  in  a  written  request  to  be  made  "  general."  The 
President  indorsed  the  paper,  by  way  of  explanation 
and  joke  together,  "Major- general,  I  reckon.  A.  Lin 
coln."  He  called  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States 
"  a  scrape ;"  for  when  somebody  sent  him  a  fine  new 
hat  just  after  he  was  elected,  he  tried  it  on,  and  then 
turning  to  Mrs.  Lincoln  said,,  with  a  quizzical  manner, 
"  Well,  wife,  there  is  one  thing  likely  to  come  out  of 
this  scrape,  anyhow :  we  are  going  to  have  some  new 
clothes  !"  There  was  a  decidedly  comic  element  in  his 
sending  Vallandigham  over  among  the  rebels  ;  it  made 
the  Ohio  "  sympathizer"  look  ridiculous  before  the 
whole  United  States,  and  killed  him  completely,  in  a 
political  sense ;  the  punishment  was  so  funny  that  it 
could  not  be  whined  over  as  a  persecution.  Of  the 
same  kind  was  the  reasoning  indorsed  on  the  decision 
in  the  case  of  Franklin  \V.  Smith ;  a  document  which 
the  Kavy  Department  will  not  allow  to  be  copied.  But 
it  was  very  nearly  thus :  Smith,  it  must  be  premised, 
had  been  most  vindictively  pursued  by  a  "  military 
court,"  whose  wrhole  finding  Mr.  Lincoln  annulled  in 
the  following  quaintly  reasoned  indorsement : 

"  Whereas,  Franklin  "W.  Smith  had  transactions  with  the 
Navy  Department,  to  the  amount  of  one  million  and  a  quarter 
of  a  million  of  dollars  ;  and  whereas,  he  had  a  chance  to  steal 
a  quarter  of  a  million,  and  was  only  charged  with  stealing 
twenty-two  hundred  dollars,  and  the  question  now  is  about  his 
stealing  a  hundred— therefore  I  don't  believe  he  stole  anything 
at  ail.  Therefore  the  record  and  findings  are  disapproved,  de 
clared  null  and  void,  and  the  defendants  are  fully  discharged." 

Having  completed  his  second  inaugural — which  the 

7 


98  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

London  Spectator  called  "  the  noblest  political  docu 
ment  known  to  history" — he  brought  it,  on  the  Sunday 
evening  before  the  re-inauguration,  into  his  office,  where 
several  personal  friends  were  sitting,  and  thus  proclaim 
ed  its  existence,  and  as  much  as  he  chose  of  its  charac 
ter:  "Lots  of  wisdom,  I  suspect,  in  that  document. 
It  is  what  will  be  called  my  second  inaugural,  contain 
ing  about  six  hundred  words."  He  always  had  a  joke 
for  any  actual  or  real  misadventure  to  himself.  When 
beaten  for  United  States  senator,  in  Illinois,  he  was 
asked  how  he  felt  about  it,  and  replied  that  he  "  felt 
like  the  boy  who  had  stubbed  his  toe — too  bad  to  laugh 
and  too  big  to  cry."  '  When  some  one  brought  him  bad 
news  as  to  the  prospect  for  his  re-election,  he  said, 
"Well,  I  can  not  run  the  political  machine — I  have 
enough  on  my  hands  without  that.  It  is  the  people's 
business — the  election  is  in  their  hands.  If  they  turn 
their  backs  to  the  fire  and  get  scorched  in  the  rear, 
they'll  find  they've  got  to  sit  on  the  blister  /"  A  judge 
who  had  in  vain  asfced  General  Halleck,  and  then  Sec 
retary  Stanton,  for  a  pass  to  go  to  Richmond,  applied 
to  the  President.  "  Have  you  asked  Halleck  ?"  said 
Mr.  Lincoln,  "  Yes,  and  met  with  a  flat  refusal."  "  Then 
you  must  see  Stanton."  "I  have,"  said  the  Judge, 
"  and  with  the  same  result."  "  Well,  then,"  stud  Mr. 
Lincoln,  smiling,  "I  can  do  nothing;  for  you  must 
know,  I  have  very  little  influence  icith  this  administra 
tion  /"  He  remarked  wrjth  a  very  quiet  but  very  satir 
ical  quaintness  one  day,  that  if  McClcllan  did  not  want 
the  army  for  anything,  he  "  would  like  to  borrow  it." 
He  called  his  going  to  his  work  in  the  morning  "  open 
ing  shop."  Speaking  to  Mr.  Raymond  in  the  begin- 


LINCOLN.  99 

ning  of  his  term  of  the  'absurd  situation  he  found  him 
self  in,  with  the  rebellion  upon  him,  and  the  horrible 
mob  of  office-holders  that  besets  every  new  President 
howling  and  whining  about  him,  and  occupying  so 
much  of  his  time,  he  said,  "  I  am  like  a  man  so  busy 
letting  rooms  in  one  end  of  his  house,  that  he  can't  stop 
to  put  out  the  fire  at  the  other  end."  Having  signed 
a  great  pile  of  commissions,  he  said  to  Mr.  Carpenter, 
" There,  I've  got  that  job  husked  out"  These  instan 
ces — a  few  only  out  of  a  whole  life-full — are  however 
enough  to  show  how  completely  Mr.  Lincoln's  ways  of 
thought  and  speech  were  homely,  direct,  metaphorical, 
and  humorous  or  witty. 

LANGUAGE REASONING ORATORY. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  gipat  orator,  but  he  was  a 
very  convincing  public  reasoner,  and  his  language, 
whether  written  or  spoken — for  they  were  exactly 
alike — as  well  as  his  modes  of  reasoning,  had  some  no 
ticeable  peculiarities.  Of  these,  the  chief  is,  the  clear 
ness  and  force  with  which  the  thought  is  conveyed, 
notwithstanding  what  may  seem  awkward  or  undigni 
fied  forms  of  expression.  There  is  a  curious  contrast, 
which  will  strongly  illustrate  this  point,  between  two 
passages  conveying  precisely  the  same  idea ;  with  one 
of  which  Daniel  Webster  opened  his  magnificent  reply 
to  Hayne,  and  the  other  is  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  great  speech  at  Springfield,  on  opening  the  sen 
atorial  campaign  against  Douglas.  The  great  Massa 
chusetts  orator  began  thus : 

"  When  the  mariner  has  been  tossed  for  many  days,  in  thick 
weather,  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he  naturally  avails  himself 


100  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

of  the  first  pause  in  the  storm,  the'earliest  glance  of  the  sun,  to 
take  his  latitude,  and  ascertain  how  far  the  elements  have 
driven  him  from  his  true  course.  Let  us  imitate  that  prudence, 
and  before  we  float  farther,  refer  to  the  point  from  which  wo 
departed,  that  we  may  at  least  be  able  to  conjecture  where  we 
now  are." 

In  his  speech  at  Springfield,  a  singularly  clear,  terse, 
profound,  and  comprehensive  statement  of  the  slavery 
and  anti-slavery  controversy,  Mr.  Lincoln  covers  exact 
ly  the  same  ground,  as  follows  : 

"  If  we  could  first  know  where  we  arc,  and  whither  we  are 
tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it." 

Mr.  Webster  here  used  eighty-two  words,  of  which 
twenty,  almost  a  quarter,  have  more  than  one  syllable. 
Mr.  Lincoln  vised  twenty-five  words,  of  which  three,  or 
less  than  one  eighth,  have  more  than  one  syllable. 
This  may  seem  a  petty  method  of  comparing  orators  ; 
but  it  reveals  a  great  secret  of  directness,  clearness, 
simplicity,  and  force  in  style — it  goes  for  to  explain 
how  Mr.  Lincoln  convinced  an  audience.  Of  the  same 
condensed  sort  was  a  little  "  sermon" — a  very  compre 
hensive  code  for  living  a  good  life,  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  said  to  have  often  repeated  to  his  boys.  It  would  be 
a  good  discourse  for  every  boy  in  the  United  States  to 
commit  to  memory — and  still  better  to  live  up  to. 
Thus  it  ran : 

"  Don't  drink,  don't  smoke,  don't  chew,  don't  swear,  don't 
gamble,  don't  lie,  don't  cheat.  Love  your  fellow-men  and  love 
God.  Love  truth,  love  virtue,  and  be  happy." 

Almost  as  short  was  his  first  public  political  speech, 
in  1832,  at  offering  himself  for  the  Illinois  Legislature. 


LINCOLN.  101 

His  opponent  bad  set  forth  his  views  at  great  length, 
ami  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  his  turn  came,  spoke  thus : 

"Gentlemen, fellow-citizens:  Ipresumeyou  knowwhol  am — 
I  am  humble  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  been  solicited  by  many 
friends  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature.  My  politics 
can  be  briefly  stated.  I  am  in  favor  of  a  national  bank.  I  am 
in  favor  of  the  internal  improvement  system,  and  a  high  pro 
tective  tariff.  These  are  my  sentiments  and  political  principles. 
If  elected,  I  shall  be  thankful  If  not,  it  will  be  all  the  same." 

As  a  reasoner  to  juries,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  suc 
cessful.  One  great  cause  of  this,  as  has  been  shown, 
was  the  well-known  fact  that  what  he  argued  heartily 
he  believed  in  heartily.  Thus  his  client  had,  besides 
the  justice  of  his  cause,  the  whole  weight  of  the  lawyer's 
personal  character — an  advantage  of  vast  importance, 
but  which  few  lawyers  know  or  care  about.  But  all 
this  was  materially  helped  by  the  strenuous  directness 
with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  labored  straight  at  the  truth — 
the  facts — and  the  utter  sincerity  with  which,  when  he 
had  grasped  them  himself,  he  strove  to  communicate 
them  to  the  jury  in  the  plainest,  simplest,  clearest  way. 
To  be  sure,  he  told  stories  and  used  humorous  turns  of 
expression.  But  these  were  so  used  as  to  be  clear 
lights  flung  direct  upon  the  point  in  hand — not,  as  with 
rhetoricians,  mere  fireworks  to  dazzle  and  confuse. 
After  Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  memorial  proceedings  of  the 
usual  kind  were  had  in  the  courts  of  Illinois.  Ex-Judge 
Caton,  in  the  Supreme  Court  at  Ottawa,  in  speaking  to 
the  resolutions  from  the  bar,  observed,  "  Mr.  Lincoln 
knew  the  relations  of  things,  and  hence  his  deductions 
were  rarely  wrong  from  any  given  state  of  facts.  So 
he  applied  the  principles  of  law  to  the  transactions  of 


102  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

men  with  great  clearness  and  precision.  lie  was  a 
close  reasoner.  He  reasoned  by  analogy,  and  enforced 
his  views  by  apt  illustrations."  Judge  Breese,  on  the 
same  occasion,  said,  "  I  have  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
regarded  Mr.  Lincoln  as  the  finest  lawyer  I  ever  knew." 
Judge  Drummond,  of  Chicago,  said,  "  He  was  one  of  the 
ablest  lawyers  I  have  ever  known."  Long  before  he 
became  known  in  politics,  he  was  pointed  out  to  a 
stranger  by  a  citizen  of  Springfield  as  "  Abe  Lincoln, 
the  first  lawyer  of  Illinois." 

His  success  before  popular  audiences  was  based  on 
the  same  qualities  as  his  success  with  juries.  Both  de 
pended  upon  his  complete  mental  sympathy  with  aver 
age  men,  and  his  great  power  of  stating  and  illustrat 
ing  facts  upon  the  mental  level  of  average  men — that 
is,  plainly,  directly,  forcibly,  and  humorously.  An 
account,  by  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Gulliver,  of  a  conversation 
with  Mr.  Lincoln,  about  his  speech  at  Norwich,  Conn., 
during  his  visit  at  the  East  just  after  the  Seven 
Debates  with  Douglas,  gives  so  just  and  striking  a 
portraiture  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  speaking  and  modes  of 
thought,  that  it  is  transcribed  here.  It  is  from  the 
New  York  Independent  of  Sept.  1, 1 804.  Mr.  Gulliver, 
meeting  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  cars  the  day  after  the 
speech,  said,  during  the  conversation,  that  it  was  "  one 
of  the  most  extraordinary  speeches  he  ever  heard." 

"  As  we  entered  the  cars  [continues  Mr.  Gulliver],  he  beck 
oned  me  to  take  a  seat  with  him,  and  said,  in  a  most  agree 
ably  frank  way,  '"Were  you  sincere  in  what  you  said  about 
my  speech  just  now  ?'  '  I  meant  every  word  of  it,  Mr.  Lin 
coln.  Why,  an  old  dyed-in-the-wool  Democrat,  who  sat  near 
me,  applauded  you  repeatedly;  and,  when  rallied  upon  his 
conversion  to  sound  principles,  answered,  "  I  don't  believe  a 


LINCOLN.  103 

word  lie  says,  but  I  can't  help  clapping  him,  he  is  so  pat!" 
That  I  call  the  triumph  of  oratory — 

'  •  When  you  convince  a  man  against  his  will, 
Though  he  is  of  the  same  opinion  still." 

Indeed,  sir,  I  learned  more  of  the  art  of  public  speaking  last 
evening  than  I  could  from  a  whole  course  of  lectures  on  Rhe 
toric.' 

"  '  Ah  !  that  reminds  me,'  said  he, '  of  a  most  extraordinary 
circumstance  which  occurred  in  New  Haven  the  other  day. 
They  told  me  that  the  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  College— 
a  very  learned  man,  isn't  he?' 

"  *  Yes,  sir,  and  a  fine  critic,  too.' 

"  '  "Well,  I  suppose  so ;  he  ought  to  be,  at  any  rate — they  told 
me  that  he  came  to  hear  me,  and  took  notes  of  my  speech,  and 
gave  a  lecture  on  it  to  his  class  the  next  day ;  and,  not  satisfied 
with  that,  he  followed  me  up  to  Meriden  the  next  evening,  and 
heard  me  again  for  the  same  purpose.  Now,  if  this  is  so,  it  is 
to  my  mind  veiy  extraordinary.  I  have  been  sufficiently  aston 
ished  at  my  success  in  the  West.  It  has  been  most  unexpected. 
But  I  had  no  thought  of  any  marked  success  at  the  East,  and 
least  of  all  that  I  should  draw  out  such  commendations  from 
literary  and  learned  men.  Now,'  he  continued, '  I  should  like 
very  much  to  know  what  it  was  in  my  speech  you  thought  so 
remarkable,  and  what  you  suppose  interested  my  friend  the 
Professor  so  much.' 

"  '  The  clearness  of  your  statements,  Mr.  Lincoln ;  the  un 
answerable  style  of  your  reasoning,  and  especially  your  illus 
trations,  which  were  romance  and  pathos,  and  fun  and  logic 
all  welded  together.  That  story  about  the  snakes,  for  example, 
which  set  the  hands  and  feet  of  your  Democratic  hearers  in 
such  vigorous  motion,  was  at  once  queer  and  comical,  and 
tragic  and  argumentative.  It  broke  through  all  the  barriers 
of  a  man's  previous  opinions  and  prejudices  at  a  crash,  and 
blew  up  the  very  citadel  of  his  false  theories  before  he  could 
know  what  had  hurt  him.' 

"  '  Can  you  remember  any  other  illustrations,'  said  he,  *  of 
this  peculiarity  of  my  style  ?' 


104:  THE    PICTUPwE   AND   THE   MEN. 

"I  gave  him  others  of  the  same  sort,  occupying  some  half 
hour  in  the  critique,  when  he  said :  '  I  am  much  obliged  to  you 
for  this.  I  have  been  wishing  for  a  long  time  to  find  some  one 
who  would  make  this  analysis  for  me.  It  throws  light  on 
a  subject  which  has  been  dark  to  me.  I  can  understand 
very  readily  how  such  a  power  as  you  have  ascribed  to  me  will 
account  for  the  effect  which  seems  to  be  produced  by  my 
speeches.  I  hope  you  have  not  been  too  flattering  in  your 
estimate.  Certainly,  I  have  had  a  most  wonderful  success,  for 
a  man  of  my  limited,  education.'  " 

Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  of  all  Mr.  Lincoln's 
peculiarities  of  reasoning  was  his  habit  of  arguing 
against  himself—  against  the  view  to  which  he  was  in 
clined,  which  he  desired,  which  he  expected  to  adopt, 
and  which  he  did  in  fact  finally  adopt.  His  widely- 
known  saying,  when  urged  by  a  deputation  of  clergy 
men  to  proclaim  emancipation,  "  I  do  not  want  to  issue 
a  document  that  the  whole  world  will  see  must  neces 
sarily  be  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's  bull  against  the 
comet !"  was  uttered  more  than  a  month  after  he  had 
declared  to  the  Cabinet  his  confirmed  purpose  to  issue 
the  Great  Proclamation.  While  a  lawyer,  he  used,  in 
the  words  of  Div  Holland,  to  "  study  both  sides  (of  his 
cases)  with  equal  thoroughness.  It  was  in  the  days  of 
his  legal  practice  his  habit  to  argue  against  himself, 
and  it  always  remained  the  habit  of  his  life.  He  took 
special  interest  in  the  investigation  of  every  point  that 
could  be  made  against  him  and  his  positions."  Mr. 
Colfax,  in  his  Chicago  funeral  oration  upon  Mr.  Lincoln, 
thus  described  this  trait : 

•  "  When  his  judgment,  which  acted  slowly,  but  which  was 
almost  as  immovable  as  the  eternal  hills  when  settled,  was 
grasping  some  subject  of  importance,  the  arguments  against  his 


LINCOLN.  105 

own  desires  seemed  uppermost  in  liis  mind,  and  in  conversing 
upon  it,  he  would  use  those  arguments,  to  see  if  they  could  be 
rebutted." 

After  the  same  fashion,  although  he  was  thought  to 
hesitate  a  good  while  before  he  nominated  to  the  place 
of  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States,  vacant  by  Judge 
Taney's  death,  yet  lie  said  himself  that  "  there  never 
was  a  time  during  his  Presidency  when,  in  the  event  of 
the  death  of  Judge  Taney,  he  had  not  fully  intended 
and  expected  to  nominate  Salmon  P.  Chase  for  Chief- 
Justice." 

ORIGINALITY. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  methods  of  thinking  and  ways  of  ex 
pressing  his  thoughts  were  so  completely  his  own  that 
his  mental  operations  gave  an  impression  of  lonesome- 
ness.  The  expedients  he  used,  the  thoughts  that  came 
into  his  mind,  the  phraseology  in  which  he  communi 
cated  them,  were  not  only  his  own,  but  they  were  so 
different  from  what  others  would  have  thought  of,  that 
they  surprise.  This  quality,  indeed,  had  much  to  do 
with  the  impressiveness  of  his  reasonings;  an  idea 
stated  in  a  way  that  we  never  thought  of  before,  is 
very  hard  to  forget  or  to  disprove.  A  curious  illustra 
tion  of  this  ready  and  out-of-the-way  but  sufficient 
suggestiveness  is  the  story  of  his  getting  his  boat  over 
a  dam.  The  boat  was  water-logged,  and  he  got  the 
bow  over  the  dam,  and  then  bored  a  hole  through  the 
bottom  and  let  the  water  out,  to  lighten  her.  Other 
men  would  have  bailed  her  out.  Nearly  all  the  anec 
dotes  that  have  already  been  given  to  bring  out  other 
points  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  character,  do  in  fact  show  also 
this  same  trait  of  originality.  The  punishment  of  Val- 


10G  THE   PICTURE   AND    THE    MEN. 

landigham — the  "  opening  shop" — almost  every  act  and 
word  of  the  man,  in  fact,  was  of  the  same  original,  pecu 
liar,  and  yet  sufficient  character.  Nothing  more  strong, 
ly  illustrates  and  proves  this  trait  of  originality  than 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Lincoln  said  things  that  became  pro 
verbial.  "  If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing  is  wrong," 
he  wrote  in  a  letter ;  an  expression  which  says,  charac 
teristically,  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  reasoning  manner,  what 
Wesley  put  more  epigrammatically,  but  not  more  pow 
erfully,  when  he  said,  "  Slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  vil 
lainies."  His  great  speech  at  New  York  ended  with 
the  lofty  thought:  "It  has  been  said  of  the  .world's 
history  hitherto,  that  '  might  makes  right ;'  it  is  for  us 
and  for  our  times  to  reverse  the  maxim,  and  to  show 
that  right  makes  might."  His  phrase  "  to  swap  horses 
while  crossing  the  river,"  is  even  more  widely  current, 
and  the  very  noble  antithesis  in  the  second  inaugural — 
"  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,"  is 
not  only  proverbial  but  historical. 

EDUCATION. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  as  has  been  mentioned,  had  but  few 
months  schooling  in  all.  He  never  read  a  novel. 
He  read  newspapers,  and  indeed  may  be  said  to  have 
studied  them,  for  a  great  part  of  his  life,  although  after 
he  became  President  he  hardly  looked  into  any.  He 
found  that  facts  themselves  were  all  he  could  attend 
to,  without  trying  to  see  what  editors  thought  of  them. 
He  began  "  Ivanhoe"  once,  but  did  not  finish  it.  The 
class-books  he  studied  most  were  neither  grammar  nor 
geography,  but  the  Bible,  Shakspeare,  ^Esop's  Fables, 
and  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  Of  the  former  three  he 


LINCOLN.  107 

. 

could  repeat  considerable  portions.  And  he  read,  also, 
the  Life  of  Washington,  the  Life  of  Franklin,  and  the 
Life  of  Henry  Clay.  It  would  be  very  hard  to  choose 
seven  better  books  for  a  young  man  to  feed  on.  But 
Mr.  Lincoln's  real  education  was  his  life  of  strenuous 
mental  labor,  first  in  learning  the  principles  applicable 
to  his  work,  whatever  that  was,  and  secondly,  in  apply 
ing  those  principles  so  as  to  do  that  work  in  the  quick 
est  and  most  effective  way. 

PRESIDENT. 

The  merit  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Presidency  is,  that  he 
judged  so  well  what  the  people  of  the  United  States 
willed,  and  when  and  how  to  do  what  they  willed.  If 
he  had  able  advisers,  so  much  the  greater  his  merit  for 
knowing  good  advice  when  it  was  given  to  him  and 
for  following  it.  It  is  exactly  the  proper  office  of  an 
American  statesman  and  ruler  as  distinguished  from  a 
monarchical  one,  that  he  must  see  and  do  what  the  na 
tion  chooses,  not  what  he  himself  chooses.  For  filling 
his  office  in  this  way,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  fitted  by  the 
same  quality  of  mental  sympathy  with  the  average 
citizen,  which  enabled  him  to  reason  so  convincingly 
before  American  audiences;  and  his  natural  kindness 
of  heart  and  rectitude  in  action  were  no  less  corre 
spondent  to  the  character  of  the  nation.  He  was  con 
scious  of  the  necessity  of  thus  acting,  not  as  an  auto 
crat,  but  as  an  agent.  Mr.  Carpenter  says,  "  Mr.  Lin 
coln  liked  to  feel  himself  the  attorney  of  the  people, 
not  their  ruler.  Speaking  once  of  the  probability  of 
his  re-nomination,  he  said  :  *  If  the  people  think  I  have 
managed  their  case  for  them  well  enough  to  trust  me 


108  THE    PICTURE    AND    THE   MEN. 

to  carry  it  on  to  the  next  term,  I  am  sure  I  shall  be 
glad  to  take  it.' "  In  conversing  with  Colonel — then 
Major — Halpine,  who  suggested  a  plan  to  relieve  him 
from  great  part  of  the  immense  number  of  personal  ap 
plications  and  interviews  that  burdened  him  so  heavily, 
he  expressed  more  fully  the  same  idea.  He  said,  "For 
myself,  I  feel— though  the  tax  on  my  time  is  heavy— 
that  no  hours  of  my  day  are  better  employed  than 
those  which  thus  bring  me  again  within  the  direct  con 
tact  and  atmosphere  of  our  whole  people."  *  *  *  "I 
tell  you,  Major,  that  I  call  these  receptions  my  '  public- 
opinion  baths ;'  for  I  have  but  little  time  to  read  the 
papers  and  gather  public  opinion  that  way ;  and  though 
they  may  not  be  pleasant  in  all  their  particulars,  the 
effect  as  a  whole  is  renovating  and  invigorating  to  my 
perceptions  of  responsibility  and  duty." 

PERSONAL     APPEARANCE. 

The  following  description  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  person, 
from  an  address  by  his  law  partner,  Mr.  Hern  don,  is 
almost  as  original  a  piece  of  work  as  any  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  own,  and  is  a  very  graphic  representation  of  the 
man : 

"  He  was  about  six  feet  four  inches  high,  and  when  he  left 
this  city  was  fifty-one  years  old,  having  good  health  and  HO 
gray  hairs,  or  but  few,  on  his  head.  He  was  thin,  wiry,  sin 
ewy,  raw-honed  ;  thin  through  the  breast  to  the  back,  and  nar-  , 
row  across  the  shoulders ;  standing,  he  leaned  forward — was 
what  may  be  called  stoop-shouldered,  inclining  to  the  consump 
tive  by  build.  His  usual  weight  was  one  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds.  His  organization — rather  his  structure  and  functions 
— worked  slowly.  His  blood  had  to  run  a  long  distance  from 
his  heart  to  the  extremities  of  his  frame,  and  his  nerve-force 


LINCOLN.  100 

had  to  travel  through  dry  ground  a  long  distance  before  his 
muscles  were  obedient  to  his  will.  His  structure  was  loose  and 
leathery;  his  body  was  shrunk  and  shriveled,  having  dark 
skin,  dark  hair — looking  woe-struck.  The  whole  man,  body 
and  mind,  worked  slowly,  creakingly,  as  if  it  needed  oiling. 
Physically,  he  was  a  very  powerful  man,  lifting  with  ease  four 
hundred  or  six  hundred  pounds.  His  mind  wras  like  his  body, 
and  worked  slowly  but  strongly.  When  he  walked,  he  moved 
cautiously  but  firmly,  his  long  arms  and  hands  on  them,  hang 
ing  like  giant's  hands,  swung  down  by  his  side.  He  walked 
with  even  tread,  the  inner  sides  of  his  feet  being  parallel.  He 
put  the  whole  foot  flat  down  on  the  ground  at  once,  not  land 
ing  on  the  heel ;  he  likewise  lifted  his  foot  all  at  once,  not  ris 
ing  from  the  toe,  and  hence  he  had  no  spring  to  his  walk.  He 
had  economy  of  fall  and  lift  of  foot,  though  he  had  no  spring 
or  apparent  ease  of  motion  in  his  tread.  He  walked  nndula- 
toiy,  up  and  down,  catching  and  pocketing  tire,  weariness,  and 
pain,  all  up  and  down  his  person,  preventing  them  from  locat 
ing.  The  first  opinion  of  a  stranger,  or  a  man  who  did  not  ob 
serve  closely,  was  that  his  walk  implied  shrewdness,  cunning 
— a  tricky  man ;  but  his  was  the  walk  of  caution  and  firmness. 
In  sitting  down  on  a  common  chair  he  was  no  taller  than  ordi 
nary  men.  His  legs  and  arms  were,  abnormally,  unnaturally 
long,  and  in  undue  proportion  to  the  balance  of  his  body.  It 
was  only  when  he  stood  up  that  he  loomed  above  other  men. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln's  head  was  long  and  tall  from  the  base  of  the 
brain  and  from  the  eyebrows.  His  head  ran  backward,  his 
forehead  rising  as  it  ran  back  at  a  low  angle,  like  Clay's,  and, 
unlike  Webster's,  almost  perpendicular.  The  size  of  his  hat, 
measured  at  the  hatter's  block,  was  seven  and  an  eighth,  his 
head  being,  from  ear  to  car,  six  and  a  half  inches,  and  from  the 
front  to  the  back  of  the  brain  eight  inches.  Thus  measured, 
it  was  not  below  the  medium  size.  His  forehead  was  narrow 
but  high ;  his  hair  was  dark,  almost  black,  and  lay  floating 
where  his  fingers  or  the  winds  left  it,  piled  up  at  random.  His 
check-bones  were  high,  sharp,  and  prominent ;  his  ej'ebrows 
heavy  and  prominent ;  his  jaws  were  long,  up-curved,  and 
heavy  ;  his  nose  was  large,  long,  and  blunt,  a  little  awry  toward 


110  MIK    PICTURE    AND    THE    MEN. 


the  ri"hl  eye;  his  chin  was  long,  sharp,  and  up  curved  ;  his 
c\el>rous  cropped  out  like  :i  huge  n.ck  on  thr  brow  of  ;i  hill; 
his  lacv  was  loii!';,  sallow,  ami  cadaverous,  shrunk,  shriveled, 
wrinkled,  and  dry,  having  here  ami  (here  a  hair  on  the  sur 
face;  his  checks  \\  err  leathery;  his  cars  were  large,  and  ran 
out  almo  I  at  ii:'hl  angles  iVom  his  head,  caused  partly  hy 
heavy  hats  and  partly  hy  nature;  his  lower  lip  was  thick,  ban.', 
::d  under  curved,  while  his  chin  reached  tor  the  lip  up- 
cuned;  his  neck  uas  neat  and  trim,  his  head  being  well  1ml- 
anccil  on  it  ;  there  was  the  lone  mole  on  the  right  cheek,  and 
Adam's  apple  on  his  throat. 

"Thus  stood,  walked,  acted,  and  looked  Abraham  Lincoln. 
lie  \\:n  not  a  pretty  man  hy  any  means,  nor  was  ho  an  Ugly 
one;  he  was  a  homely  man,  careless  of  his  looks,  plain  look 
ing  and  plain  acting.  He  had  no  pomp,  display,  or  dignity, 
M>  called,  lie  appeared  simple  in  his  carriage  and  heariii";. 
lie  was  a  sad  looking  man  ;  his  melancholy  dripped  from  him 
I  lie  \\alked.  His  apparent  gloom  impressed  his  friends,  and 
created  a:yinpathy  for  him—  one  means  of  his  rival  sueee-s. 
He  \\as  gloomy,  abstracted,  and  joyous  —  rather  humorous  —  hy 
turns.  1  do  not,  think  he  Knew  what  real  joy  was  for  many 
years. 

11  Mr.  Lincoln  sometimes  walked  onr  streets  cheerily  —  gooil- 
hnmoi-e.lly,  perhaps  joyously  and  then  it  was,  on  meeting  a 
friend,  lie  cried  '  How  d'y  V  clasping  one  of  his  friend's  hands 
in  both  of  his,  :'.i\ing  a  :>.ood  hearty  soul-  welcome.  Of  a  win 
ter'-;  morniii";,  lie  might,  be  seen  stalking  and  stilting  it  touard 
the  market  house,  basket  on  arm,  his  old  gray  sha\\  1  wrapped 
around  his  neck,  his  little  Willie  or  Tad  running  along  at  his 
heels,  asking  a  thousand  litlle  quick  questions,  which  his  father 
heard  not,  not  even  then  Knowing  that  little  Willie  or  Tad  was 
there,  .-o  ab.-.iiaeied  u  as  he.  'When  he  thus  met  a  friend,  ho 
.-aid  that  .something  put  him  in  mind  of  a  Moiy  which  he  heard 
in  Indiana  or  chew  here,  and  tell  it  he  \\otild,  and  there  was  no 
allernalix  e  hut  !•>  Ihten. 

"Tliu.,1  My,  ftO6d  and  \\alKed  and  looked  this  s'.n-ular 
man.  lie  \\  a  ,  odd.  but  \\hen  thai  -lav  e\  e  and  fan-  and  every 
feature  were  lit  up  by  the  inward  soul  in  tire.,  of  emotion,  tluii. 


in 

it  was  that  all  these  apparently  ujrly  features  sprang  int^  i 
of  beauty,  or  sunk  themselves  into  a  sea  of  inspi 
(sometimes  flooded  lite  fece.    Sometime*  it  appeared  U>  me  that 
la's  soul  was  just  fresh  from  the  presence  of  it 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  Lorn  poor ;  had  scarcely  the 
bare  rudiments  of  education  a:.'  :iey;  he  I 

in  the  backwoods,  and  had  to  xhausting  and 

time-consuming  manual  labor  of  frontier 
order  to  live ;  he  had  not  one  single  brilliant  intellec 
tual  trait  or  faculty  to  help  him  ;  he  had  neither  books, 

•a  intellectual  home 

nor  the  culture  of  systematic  study.  Yet  toiling  to 
the  uttermost,  and  simply  doing  his  best  with  unbroken 
and  uridiscouraged  steadiness,  lie  lived  a  singularly 
useful,  successful,  and  even  a  heroically  symmetrical 
and  noble  life.  He  was  a  good  citizen,  a  most  'benefi 
cent  friend  and  neighbor,  a  helper  of  the  needy,  only 
over-kind  as  a  parent,  an  honest  and  able  lawyer,  a 
powerful  and  useful  public  speaker,  a  shrewd  ar; 
a  fair  politician,  a  justice  and  right,  a  patient 

andjuntand  deter  ^gacious  and  far-seeing 

ruler.    His  fa:.-  with  the  saving  of  a  nation  and 

t-be  n  ri  of  a  race ;  he  is  one  of  those  very  few 

men  whose  names  can  not  be  rj,  because  his 

goodness,  as  well  as  his  office,  marks  a  great  epoch  in 
human  history. 

There  is  no  room  here  to  quote  any  of  the  very  nu 
merous  and  enthusiastic  praises  that  friends  an'] 
alike  have  abundantly  bestowed  upon  3Ir.  Lincoln.  It 
Is  the  fete  of  good  and  bad  men  alike  to  be  reviled 
while  alive.  But  it  must  have  been  a  good  man  whose 
memory  Fhines  with  such  bright  unspotted  splendor  of 


112  THE   PICTURE   AND  THE 

praise  as  lias  been  awarded  to  Mr.  Lincoln  Since  his 
death.  The  rulers  of  England  who  did  their  best  to 
help  our  nation  into  ruin  under  a  lying  pretense  of  neu 
trality  ;  the  English  newspapers  that  had  ranted  and 
sneered  at  us  and  at  him  all  through  the  war ;  life-long 
political  opponents,  thorough-going  rebels,  underhand 
traitors  in  the  North,  doubtful  or  dissatisfied  partisans 
and  unqualified  supporters,  all  alike  joined  in  one  im 
mense  voice  of  unbroken  commendation  and  mourning 
when  he  was  taken  away.  And — what  was  a  far 
nobler  and  more  desirable  possession  than  all — he  had 
and  still  has  the  love  and  the  ^prayers  of  the  ignorant 
and  oppressed  negroes ;  a  voice  that  makes  but  small 
sound  on  earth,  but  which  comes  before  the  throne  of 
God  with  a  far  stronger  and  loftier  tone  than  that  of 
all  the  white  men  who  ever  lauded  him.  If  the  Eman 
cipation  of  the  Slaves  was  the  greatest  deed  since 
Christ,  assuredly  the  blessings  of  the  black  people  arc 
the  best  blessings  that  any  man  has  had  since  Christ. 

As  one  indication — though  doubtless  an  uncertain 
test — of  the  extent  and  cle'pth  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  popu 
larity  with  the  American  people,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  since  his  death  there  has  appeared  a  printed  list 
of  three  hundred  and  eighty  books,  sermons,  eulogies, 
and  addresses  upon  his  life  or  death ;  and  this  list  is  by 
no  means  complete. 

The  lessons  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  are :  the  power  of 
determined  labor  and  thorough  honesty,  and  the  value 
of  character,  over  and  beyond  any  mere  brilliancy  or 
force  of  intellect ;  and  still  more,  the  justness  and 
soundness  of  the  basis  principles  of  our  American  lib 
erty.  Any  European  kingdom — say  England — will  be 


LINCOLN.  11, -J 

as  good  a  country  as  America,  when  a  "  hired  man" 
shall  by  merit  become  its  king.  That  simple  test  is 
typical  of  the  two  continents.  In  no  other  nation  on 
earth  than  the  United  States  can  good  qualities  alone, 
without  intrigue  or  lying,  without  shedding  blood,  or 
privy  conspiracy,  or  levying  war,  carry  a  man  through 
so  lofty  a  career. 


114  THE    riCTURE    AiNl)   THE    MEN. 

Y. 
WILLIAM    HENRY   SEWARD. 

SECRETARY  SEWA.RD  has  during  the  rebellion  had  espe 
cial  official  charge  of  the  foreign  relations  of  the  United 
States,  and  has  likewise  been  often  an  adviser  of  the 
President  about  home  affairs.  Mr.  Scward,  before  be 
ing  Secretary  of  State,  had  been  United  States  Senator 
from  New  York,  Governor  of  New  York,  and  State 
Senator.  Besides  holding  those  important  offices,  he 
has  been  long  and  \vidcly  known  as  a  laborious  student, 
a  good  writer,  a  powerful  orator,  a  shrewd  and  able 
lawyer,  a  skillful  and  successful  politician  and  party- 
leader,  and  an  enlightened  statesman.  Of  the  Cabinet 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  was  the  only  one  who  suggested 
any  modifications  actually  adopted  as  to  the  Great 
Proclamation,  and  these  were  important  ones.  He  ad 
vised  and  secured  the  insertion  of  the  words  "  and 
maintain"  in  that  paper,  where  it  had  at  first  only  said 
that  it  would  "  recognize"  the  freedom  of  the  emancipat 
ed  slaves.  And  he  suggested  waiting  to  issue  the  Procla 
mation  accompanied  with  victory  instead  of  defeat. 

Mr.  Seward  was  bora  at  Florida,  Orange  County, 
New  York,  May  16,  1801.  He  was  therefore  eight 
years  older  than  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  is  one  year  younger 
than  the  century.  His  father's  ancestors  were  Welsh, 
and  those  of  his  mother,  Mary  Jennings,  Irish.  His 
grandfather,  John  Seward,  was  a  Colonel  in  the  Revo 
lutionary  army,  and  an  energetic  Whig  leader  in  Sus- 


BEWARD.  115 

sex  County,  New  Jersey,  where  he  lived.  The  Colo 
nel's  son,  Samuel  S.  Seward,  father  of  the  Secretary, 
removed  to  Florida,  New  York,  in  1795;  and  during 
the  next  twenty  years  accumulated  a  considerable  for 
tune  by  practicing  as  a  physician,  and  at  the  same  time 
doing  a  large  mercantile  business.  After  retiring  from 
active  employment,  he  used  to  lend  a  good  deal  of 
money  to  farmers  in  the  vicinity,  and  he  never  excused 
any  one  from  paying  the  legal  interest,  never  would 
take  more  than  that,  and  never  demanded  any  of  the 
principal  from  any  one  who  paid  the  interest  regularly, 
lie  was  for  a  long  time  a  holder  of  public  offices,  and 
for  seventeen  years  county  judge. 

Mary  Jennings  Seward,  the  Secretary's  mother,  was 
a  woman  of  clear  and  strong  mind,  remarkable  cheer 
fulness,  a  most  diligent  housewife,  and  charitable,  hos 
pitable,  and  beneficent.  It  would  be  difficult  to  choose 
a  better  parentage  ;  and  it  is  easy  to  trace  in  Mr.  Sew 
ard  the  influence  and  the  traits  of  both  his  parents. 
His  remarkable  and  unfailing  hopefulness  and  belief  in 
the  future  is  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  of  all  his 
mental  traits ;  and  this  he  received  from  his  mother. 
His  father  had  chosen,  instead  of  a  portion  in  money, 
to  receive  a  liberal  education ;  and  this  trait  of  desiro 
for  knowledge  was  reproduced  in  the  son,  but  greatly 
intensified.  He  ran  away,  not  from  school,  but  to  it ; 
he  was  always  reading ;  and  when  some  boys  threw 
stones  at  him  as  he  was  studying  while  driving  the 
cows  home,  he  was  so  intent  on  the  book  that  he  mere 
ly  turned  round  and  walke<l  backward  to  escape  the 
missiles,  still  reading  away.  Coming  to  a  small  stream, 
lie  missed  the  bridge,  and  backed  into  the  water.  If 


116  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

an  elder  brother  had  not  seen  him  and  pulled  him  out 
still  alive,  though  unconscious,  his  career  would  have 
ended  then  and  there. 

Mr.  Seward's  whole  career  has  been  marked  by  great 
aptness  to  work  in  and  by  means  of  politically  organ 
ized  forms  and  associations.  This  tendency  was  just 
about  as  distinct  in  him  from  his  ninth  to  his  fifteenth 
year,  while  he  was  at  school  at  Goshcn  Academy,  as 
when  he  bore  a  chief  part  in  organizing  and  conduct 
ing  the  Whig  party,  eighteen  years  afterward.  At  this 
academy  the  boy  was  a  leading  member  of  the  "  Clas 
sical  Society"  and  of  the  "  Goshen  Club,"  and  the 
constitutions  and  minutes  of  both  of  them  are  mostly 
in  his  handwriting.  When  fifteen,  he  went  to  Schen- 
cctady  to  be  examined  for  admission  into  Union  Col 
lege.  He  was  found  qualified  for  the  junior  class  ;  but 
was  advised  to  enter  sophomore  because  he  Avas  so 
young,  and  did  so. 

His  college  course  was  successful,  as  might  be  ex 
pected.  He  was  laborious  in  the  extreme,  as  he  has 
been,  both  before  and  since  ;  he  usually  rose  at  four  and 
worked  up  all  his  lessons  for  the  day,  and  passed  the 
evening  in  general  reading,  or  studies  and  compositions 
for  class  or  society  literary  exercises  or  debates,  while 
the  other  students  were  doing  the  routine  work  that 
he  was  going  to  do  next  morning  before  breakfast. 

In  the  last  year  of  his  course,  an  affair  occurred  which 
brought  out  in  young  Seward  with  curious  accuracy, 
and  a  singular  sort  of  political  antetyping,  exactly  the 
chief  traits  that  have  marked  his  subsequent  career ; 
an  ambition,  subordinate  to  ethical  principles ;  an  ex 
treme  faith  in  his  own  beliefs ;  power  in  setting  forth 


SEWARD.  117 

those  beliefs ;  not  an  indifference  to  the  judgments  of 
others,  but  rather  a  belief  in  the  justice  of  the  judg 
ments  of  others  when  they  should  have  considered  the 
whole  matter ;  and  a  strong  love  and  reverence  for  the 
United  States  as  a  nation,  free,  one,  and  undivided. 
The  circumstances  were  these  :  There  were  in  the  col 
lege  two  literary  societies,  the  Adelphic  and  Philoma- 
thean,  young  Seward  being  a  member  of  the  former. 
Some  twenty-five  Southern  students  had  left  Princeton, 
come  to  Union,  and  joined  the  Philomatheans.  Sec 
tional  debates  quickly  arose,  and  the  vote  on  them  was 
against  the  Southerners,  who  seceded  and  formed  a 
third  society.  On  this  state  of  facts  arose  a,  contro 
versy  within  the  Adelphic  Society,  whether  the  seces 
sion  was  justifiable.  On  this  controversy  Seward,  on 
returning  from  an  absence  South,  found  himself  a  sort 
of  umpire  in  the  society,  heard  arguments,  and  decided 
that  the  secession  was  wrong.  This  was  agreeable  to 
the  freshmen  and  sophomores  of  the  Adelphic,  but 
not  to  his  own  classmates,  the  seniors,  who  caused 
a  court  of  inquiry,  with  the  view  of  expelling  him 
from  the  Adelphic.  There  was  a  prosecutor,  and  the 
forms  of  a  trial  for  misdemeanor  were  observed.  Testi 
mony  was  given,  and  Seward  argued  his  own  cause, 
making  a  strong  argument,  and  following  with  a  spir 
ited  review  of  his  own  conduct.  He  closed  by  avow 
ing  with  enthusiastic  rhetoric  that  he  was  indifferent  to 
what  the  public  prosecutor  should  say  of  him,  had  no 
v/ish  to  know  who  voted  for  or  who  against  him,  and 
would  not  embarrass  any  member  either  by  being  pres 
ent  at  the  vote  or  by  inquiring  about  it  afterward — and 
so  ending,  he  ^ent  straight  out  of  the  room.  The  re- 


118  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

suit  was  a  triumphant  victory  over  the  prosecution,  and 
a  handsome  vindication  of  law  and  order,  and  of  the 
principles  of  the  Union. 

While  still  a  student,  Mr.  Seward  was  chosen  to  make 
an  address,  on  behalf  of  the  young  Republicans  of  the 
college,  to  Vice-President  Tornpkins,  then  visiting  Schen- 
cctady ;  and  his  speech  on  this  occasion  had  so  little 
of  the  student  or  politician,  and  so  much  of  the  orator 
and  man  in  it,  that  it  rendered  the  Vice-President,  as 
long  as  he  lived,  a  firm  and  warm  friend  of  the 
speaker. 

At  graduation,  Seward,  against  bitter  opposition,  ob 
tained  the  highest  honor  of  the  day — an  appointment 
by  the  Adelphic  Society  as  commencement  orator.  The 
theme  on  which  he  spoke  was  one  which,  like  the  name 
of  the  college  where  he  graduated,  might  be  fancied  a 
premonition  of  many  things  in  the  speaker's  subsequent 
career.  It  was  "  The  Integrity  of  the  American  Union." 
In  the  same  class  with  Mr.  Seward  graduated  lion. 
William  Kent,  Rev.  Dr.  L.  P.  Hickok,  the  well-known 
metaphysician,  and  Rev.  Tayler  Lewis,  who,  like  Dr. 
Hickok,  is  now  an  officer  of  the  college. 

Mr.  Seward  studied  law  under  John  Anthon,  of  New 
York  city,  and  worked  over  his  law  books  as  hard  as 
over  his  class  books.  As  he  went  through  one  work 
after  another,  he  completed  and  tested  his  mastery  of 
it  by  making  a  written  analysis.  He  afterward  studied 
with  Messrs.  John  Duer  and  Ogden  Hoffman,  of  Go- 
shen,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1822,  and  in  January, 
1823,  fixed  his  residence  at  Auburn  and  went  into  a 
law  partnership  with  Hon.  Elijah  Miller,  an  eminent 
lawyer  and  first  judge  of  Oayuga  County.  During 


SEWARD.  119 

1824  lie  married  Judge  Miller's  youngest  daughter, 
Francis  Adeline,  who  died  during  the  rebellion.  She 
was  a  woman  of  great  excellence  and  of  remarkable 
breadth  of  judgment  and  wisdom  in  counsel. 

During  the  early  years  of  his  residence  at  Auburn, 
Mr.  Seward  gave  a  good  deal  of  time  and  labor  to 
militia  affairs,  and  rose  to  be  colonel  of  a  regiment.  It 
is  on  record  that  he  was  "  an  excellent  tactician  and  an 
accomplished  commander."  Doubtless  this  work  was 
done  in  part  for  the  sake  of  extending  his  acquaintance ; 
a  reason  which  has  occasioned  the  very  same  step  to 
many  a  young  lawyer,  and  with  like  success. 

Mr.  Seward,  as  his  college  career  showed,  was  natu 
rally  disposed  to  politics.  His  tastes  led  that  way,  he 
had  the  abilities  needed  to  gratify  them,  and  his  pecu 
niary  prospects  were  not  such  as  to  imprison  him  con 
stantly  within  mere  legal  labors.  As  soon  therefore  as 
an  occasion  arose,  he  stepped  promptly  into  the  politi 
cal  arena,  where  he  has  been  a  strenuous  and  efficient 
combatant  ever  since,  and  of  whose  prizes  there  re 
mains  but  one  for  which  he  need  naturally  feel  any 
ambition. 

The  real  political  question  before  the  United  States 
in  those  days  was  the  same  that  has  been  forever  de 
cided  by  the  rebellion.  It  was,  Slavery  or  Freedom  ? 
In  February,  1820,  the  Missouri  Compromise  had  been 
carried  through  Congress  ;  and  doubtless  the  graduat 
ing  oration  of  young  Seward,  on  "  The  Integrity  of  the 
Union,"  must  have  been  inspired  in  theme  and  in  doc 
trine  by  the  threats  and  flourishes  about  disunion  and 
nullification  which  were  flung  about  so  freely  in  those 
days  by  Southern  politicians,  Mr.  vSeward'g  father  was 


120  THE    PICTURE   AND    THE    MEN. 

an  earnest  Jeffersonian  Democrat,  and,  as  frequently 
happens,  the  son  followed  at  first  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
parent.  But  he  soon  entered  another  road,  and  began 
with  boldness,  decision,  and  foresight,  not  by  joining  a 
powerful  party,  but  by  org'anizing  an  apparently  feeble 
opposition. 

This  was  in  October,  1824,  when  he  drafted  the  ad 
dress  of  the  Republican  Convention  of  Cayuga  Coun 
ty.  This  address  was  perhaps  the  first  positive  step  of 
the  measures  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the 
Whig  party.  What  it  actually  did  for  this  purpose 
was,  to  make  a  public  exposition  of  the  history  and 
principles  and  practices  of  that  famous  political  circle 
the  Albany  Regency,  thus  preparing  the  way  to  attack 
and  break  down  the  power  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
New  York,  so  often  the  key  State  of  our  national 
politics. 

Within  the  next  three  years  Mr.  Seward  on  two  im 
portant  occasions  set  forth  in  public  his  chief  principles 
as  a  politician,  being  the  same  in  substance  as  they  still 
are.  The  first  of  these  was  a  Fourth-of-July  Oration, 
at  Auburn,  in  which  he  stated  the  powers  of  our  na 
tional  government,  claimed  that  the  United  States 
should  be  a  city  of  refuge  for  all  that  are  oppressed, 
and  insisted  with  his  accustomed  zeal  and  confidence 
upon  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  The  second  of  these 
occasions  was  during  the  Greek  Revolution,  when,  in 
February,  1827,  he  addressed  at  Auburn  a  meeting  to 
raise  funds  to  aid  the  Greeks.  This  oration  was  an  en 
thusiastic  appeal  for  liberty  everywhere,  and  for  liberal 
aid  from  the  United  States  to  those  seeking  it ;  and  the 
result  was  a  most  generous  contribution. 


BE  WARD.  121 

At  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  Mr.  Seward  presided, 
with  great  ability  and  success,  over  the  first  political 
convention  of  the  young  men  of  New  York,  held  at 
Utica,  AugiVst  12,  1828.  This  convention  was  called 
in  favor  of  John  Quincy  Adams  as  against  Andrew 
Jackson ;  but  the  general  beat  the  statesman,  and  the 
defeat  dissolved  the  "  National  Republican"  party,  at 
least  in  Western  New  York.  The  abduction  of  Wil 
liam  Morgan,  of  Batavia,  in  the  autumn  of  1826,  had 
meanwhile  raised  up  a  furious  whirlwind  of  anti-ma 
sonic  excitement  throughout  Western  New  York,  and 
the  political  "Anti-Masonic"  party  was  forthwith  found 
ed  upon  it.  The  issue  was,  however,  not  broad  enough 
for  a  national  one.  The  anti-masons  carried  all  before 
them  in  Western  New  York  for  some  years;  once 
elected  a  Governor  of  Pennsylvania;  in  1827  polled  in 
New  York  a  vote  of  33,000,  and  two  years  later  of 
128,000,  but  never  elected  their  Governor  ;  did  govern 
Vermont  for  some  years  ;  had  a  Presidential  ticket  (the 
Wirt  and  Ellmaker  ticket)  in  the  field  in  1831,  which, 
however,  carried  no  State  but  Vermont ;  and  in  a  few 
years  the  tariff  and  currency  questions  of  the  Jackson 
period  quite  superseded  the  anti-masonic  controversy. 

During  the  existence  of  the  anti  masonic  party,  which 
was  a  sort  of  bridge  between  the  Republicans  and  the 
Whigs,  Mr.  Seward  was  adopted  by  the  anti-masons  in 
1830,  as  candidate  to  the  State  Senate,  and  was  elected 
by  2,000  majority,  though  Granger,  anti-masonic  can 
didate  for  Governor,  was  beaten  in  the  State  by  8,000. 

The  senatorship  was  followed  by  the  Whig  nomina 
tion  for  Governor  in  1834,  Mr.  Seward,  however,  being 
defeated  by  Mr.  Marcy.  But  in  1838  he  was  elected, 


122  THE    PICTURE    AND   THE   MEN. 

and  by  a  largo  majority,  and  in  1840  was  re-elected, 
declining  a  third  nomination,  notwithstanding  the  earn 
est  efforts  of  his  friends  to  the  contrary.  The  State 
senatorship  and  the  service  as  Governor  constitute  Mr. 
Seward's  career  in  the  administration  of  State  affairs, 
and  his  policy  and  the  measures  which  he  urged,  adopt 
ed,  communicated,  or  originated  give  evidence  of  re 
markable  wisdom,  practical  judgment,  foresight,  and 
elevation  of  view. 

At  entering  the  Senate  Mr.  Seward  was  not  yet 
twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and  was  the  youngest  man 
who  had  ever  been  chosen  to  that  body.  The  Legisla 
ture,  as  well  as  the  State,  was  largely  Jacksonian  Dem 
ocratic,  and  Mr.  Seward,  who  had  already  inaugurated 
the  opposition  campaign  in  the  country,  at  once  enter 
ed  into  the  opposition  ranks  at  the  capital,  and  quickly 
became  their  acknowledged  leader.  But  in  conducting 
this  opposition,  as  throughout  his  career  in  State  ad 
ministration,  he  sought  to  accomplish  objects  intrinsi 
cally  good,  along  with  and  as  a  means  of,  the  objects 
of  party  and  political  success.  He  was  distinctly  a 
progressive  legislator.  Thus,  he  quickly  set  to  work 
to  abolish  imprisonment  for  debt,  to  improve  the  State 
prison  discipline,  to  obtain  a  separate  prison  for  female 
convicts,  to  promote  the  construction  of  the  Chenango 
Canal,  and  that  of  the  Erie  Canal,  an  enterprise  then 
struggling  hard  for  life  in  the  midst  of  political  and 
money  perplexities.  His  very  first  speech  was  as  char 
acteristic  of  his  political  originality  and  foresight,  as 
his  conduct  of  the  college  society  prosecution  was  of 
his  faith  in  himself  and  independence  in  thinking.  It 
was  a  careful  and  elaborate  argument  for  an  entire 


SEWAED.  123 

change  of  the  State  militia  system,  urging  the  plan  of 
volunteer  uniform  companies  instead  of  the  old  fashion 
of  obliging  every  citizen  to  do  military  duty.  His 
views  were  adopted  in  substance — twenty  years  after 
ward. 

Of  a  like  wise  and  liberal  spirit  was  his  advocacy  of 
the  plan  for  publishing  the  well-known  Documentary 
History  of  the  State  of  New  York,  which  was  carried 
out  while  he  was  Governor,  though  the  work  was  not 
published  until  after  his  term.  When  the  people  of 
New  York  city  asked  leave  to  elect  their  mayor,  in 
stead  of  having  him  appointed  at  Albany,  he  strongly 
urged  the  method  by  popular  vote,  for  all  other  cities 
as  well  as  New  York. 

Mr.  Seward  was  as  young  a  Governor  as  he  was  sen 
ator  and  student,  being  but  thirty-seven  when  elected. 
He  was  only  thirty-three  when  first  nominated.  This 
youthfulness  was  strenuously  urged  against  him,  but  to 
little  purpose ;  for  the  election  carried  him  into  the 
Governor's  chair  by  a  strong  majority,  and  gave  the 
Whig  party — then  but  six  years  old — full  control  of 
the  Empire  State.  During  his  service  as  Governor,  Mr. 
Seward  upheld  in  word  and  deed  the  measures  and  doc 
trines  of  the  Whig  party.  But  with  large  wisdom,  he 
also  strove  to  join  with  those  measures  a  readiness  to 
adopt  and  perfect  any  improvement  or  scheme  what 
ever  within  the  scope  of  government  and  calculated  to 
do  good.  To  establish  a  reputation  for  doing  this  must 
necessarily  be  a  far  more  permanent  kind  of  party  cap 
ital  than  to  be  exclusively  identified  with  some  one 
measure  or  set  of  measures,  whose  definite  victory  or 
defeat  must  in  either  event  end  the  existence  of  the 


124:  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

party  whose  life  they  were.  Thus  he  promoted  the  es 
tablishment  of  the  normal  school  system,  according  to 
the  best  lights  of  the  day,  and  advocated  that  sound 
modern  doctrine,  that  the  state  needs  to  enforce  the  ed 
ucation  of  all  children.  With  judicious  distinction  be 
tween  true  religion  and  religious  intolerance,  he  favored 
the  employment  of  Roman  Catholic  teachers  for  the 
children  of  those  who  would  have  no  other.  He  urged, 
and  at  length  saw  adopted,  the  abolition  of  the  special 
disabilities  long  inflicted  on  foreign-born  citizens ;  and 
when  the  mayor  of  New  York  city  advised  a  tax  on 
immigrants,  with  the  idea  of  keeping  them  out  and  thus 
avoiding  some  of  the  poverty  and  crime  which  they 
brought  with  them,  he  met  this  short-sighted  proposi 
tion  with  a  strong  and  clear  explanation  of  the  great 
value  of  the  foreign  laborer  in  developing  the  resources 
of  our  new  country.  Governor  Seward  clearly  under 
stood  what  the  great  French  political  philosopher  DC 
Tocqueville  saw  so  clearly,  that  the  free  institutions  of 
the  United  States  find  one  main  security  in  the  multi 
plication  of  centers  of  political  power,  as  distinguished 
from  the  French  or  rather  European  or  monarchical 
practice  of  centralizing  that  power  wholly  in  the  hands 
of  the  supreme  government.  Accordingly,  lie  labored  to 
secure  the  election  of  judges  by  the  people,  instead  of 
the  previous  method,  which  gave  the  State  judicial  ap 
pointments  either  directly  to  the  Governor  or  indirectly 
to  the  managers  of  the  prevailing  party,  whichever  that 
might  be. 

Governor  Seward  was  a  firm,  vigorous,  and  efficient 
friend  of  the  Erie  Canal,  and  stood  by  the  great  enter 
prise  through  good  report  and  evil,  until  it  was  at  last 


SEWAHD.  125 

completed.  It  is  an  odd  circumstance,  as  he  related 
himself  in  a  speech  on  the  completion  of  the  Eric  Rail 
road,  that  he  wrote  what  he  thought  the  chef-d'oeuvre 
of  his  college  life,  in  the  form  of  an  argument  to  show 
that  cither  the  canal  could  never  be  completed,  or  if  it 
should  be  it  would  ruin  the  State.  The  spirit  of  this 
production  is  very  natural  for  a  wise  boy  as  contrasted 
with  a  wise  man,  but  the  boy's  argument  is  of  exactly 
the  same  intellectual  character  with  the  man's,  in  its 
forecasting,  its  earnest  effort  to  judge  of  the  future. 
He  was  as  good  a  friend  of  railroads  as  of  canals ;  ma 
terially  aided  in  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Railroad,  as 
subsequently  in  the  United  States  Senate  he  advocated 
the  Pacific  Railroad.  Interest  in  such  great  industrial 
enterprises  is  however  to  be  credited  to  higher  and 
deeper  views  than  those  of  party  politics.  It  depends 
not  on  notions  of  what  is  best  for  a  party,  but  of  what 
is  best  for  the  community. 

Several  critical  affairs  of  public  or  international  in 
terest  during  Governor  Seward's  two  terms  tested  his 
firmness  and  wisdom,  and  he  stood  the  test  very  well. 
One  of  these  was  the  "  anti-rent  trouble,"  which  after 
ward  broke  out  into  what  was  called  the  "  Helderbero: 

O 

War."  The  substance  of  this  was  an  attempt,  by  the 
heirs  of  Stephen  Yan  Rensselaer,  Patroon  of  the  manor 
of  Rensselaerwyck,  to  collect  the  arrears  of  rent  on 
certain  perpetual  leases  'of  manorial  lands.  As  the 
manor  was  fifty  miles  square,  the  territory  and  popula 
tion  interested  were  enough  to  make  quite  a  disturb 
ance,  the  tenants  resisting  with  violence  and  arms  any 
attempts  to  collect  the  rents.  Governor  Seward,  to 
begin  with,  issued  a  proclamation  requiring  submission 


126  TIIE    PICTURE    AND   THE   MEN. 

to  the  laws  and  application  to  the  Legislature  for  any 
required  relief,  and  at  the  same  time  a  sufficient  mili 
tary  force  was  sent  with  the  sheriff,  to  enable  him  to 
serve  process.  Gov.  Seward,  in  his  annual  message  for 
1 840,  recommended  a  commission  to  effect  a  compromise. 
Such  a  one  was  accordingly  accepted  by  the  tenants, 
but  the  landlords  unwisely  refused  it,  and  the  result  has 
been  some  insurrectionary  troubles,  a  persistent  politi 
cal  agitation,  and  an  immense  number  of  lawsuits,  the 
whole  business  ending  in  the  gradual  extinction  of  the 
feudal-tenure  leases  to  the  footing  of  ordinary  freeholds. 
The  landlords  have  thus  been  driven,  with  much  vexa 
tion  and  large  expense,  to  just  about  the  position  where 
Governor  Seward's  suggestions  would  have  placed  them 
amicably  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

Another  and  even  more  troublesome  affair  was  the 
famous  M'Leod  case.  M'Leod,  a  Canadian,  having 
boasted,  while  in  Niagara  County,  N.  Y.,  that  he  had 
helped  burn  the  steamer  Caroline,  on  the  night  of 
December  29, 1837,  during  the  so-called  "  Patriot  War," 
was  at  once  seized  and  held  for  trial  on  a  charge  of 
arson.  The  British  minister  protested,  claiming  that 
the  burning  was  an  act  of  war,  and  that  M'Leod  was 
therefore  not  liable  to  civil  trial.  President  Van  Buren 
however  decided  that  the  act  was  a  civil  crime,  of  which 
the  New  York  courts  had  jurisdiction.  In  reply,  the 
British  minister,  after  the  manner  of  his  nation,  threat 
ened  hostilities  if  M'Leod  was  not  given  up ;  and  Gen 
eral  Harrison,  on  succeeding  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  sub 
stance  reversed  his  predecessor's  opinion,  and  urged 
that  a  nolle  should  be  entered  in  the  State  court  in  the 
case.  Thus  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  were 


SKWABD.  127 

botli  against  New  York ;  but  Mr.  Seward  quietly  caused 
M'Leod  to  be  tried  in  regular  course  of  law.  He  was 
acquitted ;  and  then,  and  not  before,  Governor  Seward 
had  him  sent  under  escort  into  Canadian  territory. 
The  British  did  not  fulfill  any  of  their  threats. 

At  the  end  of  his  term,  Governor  Seward  resigned 
his  chair  to  his  successor,  Governor  Bouck,  whom  he 
introduced  in  form  and  with  kindly  courtesy  to  the 
people  of  Albany — a  wise  and  good-natured  deed, 
never  before  done  in  the  State.  One  week  after  leav 
ing  the  governorship  he  was  hard  at  work  in  his  law 
office  in  Auburn,  and  he  at  once  resumed  and  largely 
increased  a  profitable  business  in  the  State  courts. 
This  was  in  a  year  or  two  somewhat  modified,  as  his 
talent  for  managing  patent  cases  soon  brought  him  a 
large  practice  in  the  United  States  courts.  During  the 
six  years  between  the  governorship  and  his  election  to 
the  United  States  Senate  in  February,  1849,  besides  his 
large  law  business,  he  was  constantly  consulted  by  the 
Whig  leaders,  and  was  an  efficient  laborer  in  aid  of 
that  party  during  the  Presidential  campaigns  of  1844 
and  1848.  He  was  elected  United  States  senator  by  a 
vote  of  121  to  30. 

Mr.  Seward's  senatorial  career  lasted  twelve  years, 
including  the  administrations  of  Presidents  Taylor, 
Fillmore,  Pierce,  and  Buchanan ;  and  covered  that 
historically  important  period  during  which  the  North 
and  South  Avere  verging  toward  the  two  opposite  atti 
tudes  on  the  moral-political  question  of  slavery,  which 
resulted  in  the  rebellion.  During  all  this  period  Mr. 
Seward  was  a  powerful  and  steadfast  champion,  ac 
cording  to  his  own  views  of  expediency  and  right,  of 


128  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE    MEN. 

the  anti-slavery  extension  sentiments  of  the  North. 
While  President  Taylor  lived,  Mr.  Seward  was  one  of 
his  closest  friends  and  counselors.  At  the  instant  of 
his  reaching  Washington,  he  found  the  principle  of 
slavery  involved  in  a  money  bill  then  before  the  Senate, 
to  which.  Mr.  Walker,  of  Mississippi,  had  proposed  an 
amendment  that  would  annul  in  the  Mexican  territories, 
just  acquired,  the  Mexican  laws  prohibiting  slavery. 
The  Senate  adopted  the  amendment ;  but  Mr.  Seward, 
without  losing  a  moment,  set  to  work  to  secure  its  de 
feat  in  the  House.  After  a  long  and  violent  debate 
the  House  rejected  it,  and  the  Senate  receded,  on  the 
very  last  night  of  the  session.  The  next  crisis  in  the 
great  contest  was  the  struggle  over  the  admission  of 
California,  and  it  was  in  his  speech  on  this  question, 
March  11,  1850,  that  Mr.  Seward  used  that  phrase 
"  The  Higher  Law,"  which  has  since  been  so  often  re 
peated  in  praise  and  blame.  This  famous  term  was 
used  in  arguing  that  while  the  Constitution  "  devotes 
the  national  domain  to  union,  to  justice,  to  defense,  to 
welfare,  and  to  liberty,"  "  there  is  a  higher  law  than 
the  Constitution,  which  regulates  our  authority  over 
that  domain,  and  devotes  it  to  the  same  noble  purposes" 
The  term  'was  thus  used  in  proving  the  agreement  of 
the  law  of  God  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States ;  and  it  is  difficult  now  to  see  what  fault  could 
be  found  with  it. 

Whenever  the  question  of  human  freedom  arose,  Mr. 
Seward  labored  and  voted  in  its  favor.  He  was  a  con 
sistent  and  vigorous  opponent  of  the  fugitive  slave  bill, 
of  the  pro-slavery  element  in  Mr.  Clay's  "  compromise," 
and  of  all  those  successive  victories  of  slavery  which 


SEWAKD.  120 

culminated  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
the  Kansas  iniquities,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and 
which  worked  their  own  defeat  through  the  reaction 
which  fhcy  caused  in  the  North.  As  in  his  youth  he 
had  argued  in  favor  of  the  Greeks  in  their  strife  against 
Turkey,  so  now  he  spoke  earnestly  in  favor  of  the  Hun 
garians.  Upon  questions  affecting  the  industrial  and 
social  interests  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Seward's 
course  in  the  Senate  was  substantially  a  continuation 
of  that  which  he  pursued  while  legislator  and  Governor 
in  New  York. 

As  senator,  he  was  remarkably  successful  in  continu 
ing  on  good  terms  personally  with  the  imperious  and 
unscrupulous  Southern  politicians,  whose  plans  he  was 
opposing  with  all  his  might.  lie  was,  it  is  true,  some- 
"  times  treated  with  discourtesy.  One  violent  fellow 
proposed  to  expel  him  for  words  used  in  debate  on  the 
fugitive  slave  bill,  and  to  this  threat  he  replied  in  his 
place  with  dignity  and  force,  quietly  defying  the  threat, 
and  agreeing  that  on  the  trial  of  the  question  he  would 
use  no  defense  except  the  very  speeches  for  which  the 
expulsion  was  threatened.  Of  course  the  threat  was 
not  fulfilled ;  the  gag-law  day  was  twenty  years  before. 

In  1858,  in  an  election  speech  at  Rochester,  Mr. 
Seward  furnished  to  cotemporary  English  a  second 
phrase,  which  has  perhaps  been  more  repeated  even 
than  "  Higher  Law."  This  was  "  Irrepressible  Conflict." 
The  words  were  used  in  speaking  of  the  collisions  be 
tween  slave  and  free  labor  in  the  United  States,  in  the 
following  sentences : 

"  Shall  I  tell  you  what  this  collision  means  ?  They 
who  think  it  is  accidental,  unnecessary,  the  work  of  in- 
9 


130  THE    PICTURE    AND   THE    MEN. 

tercsted  or  fanatical  agitators,  and  therefore  ephemeral, 
mistake  the  case  altogether.  It  is  an  irrepressible  con 
flict  between  opposing  and  enduring  forces,  and  it 
means  that  the  United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or 
later,  become  either  entirely  a  slave-holding  nation,  or 
entirely  a  free-labor  nation."  This  was  exactly  the 
substance  of  what  Mr.  Lincoln  said  in  his  great  speech 
at  Springfield,  Illinois,  in  the  same  summer :  "  I  believe 
this  Government  can  not  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free,"  etc.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  then  a 
man  of  first-class  national  reputation,  and  he  did  not 
put  his  thought  into  a  neat  phrase.  In  1856  as  well  as 
in  18G1  Mr.  Seward  was  preferred  by  many  Republi 
cans  as  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and  on  the  first 
ballot  at  Chicago  in  1860  he  received  173  votes  to  Mr. 

O 

Lincoln's  103.  During  both  those  campaigns,  Mr/ 
Seward  in  good  faith  and  effectively  supported  his 
party  and  its  candidates,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  upon  elec 
tion,  at  once  offered  to  his  late  competitor  the  place 
of  Secretary  of  State.  This  office  has  given  to  Mr. 
Seward  a  very  influential  part  in  managing  the  foreign 
affairs  of  the  United  States  during  the  difficult  and 
dangerous  period  of  the  rebellion.  His  performance 
of  this  duty — as  indeed  has  been  the  case  with  most  or 
all  his  previous  public  labors — has  been  highly  praised 
and  deeply  blamed.  But  whether  his  views  have 
always  been  correct  or  not,  the  fact  remains,  that  while 
the  governments  of  Europe  were  ardently  desirous  of 
the  destruction  of  this  republic,  yet  no  foreign  war 
came  upon  us  while  hampered  by  the  rebellion ;  and 
that  it  is  certainly  doubtful  what  the  issue  would  have 
been  had  the  contrary  taken  place.  Of  both  President 


SEWAKD.  131 

Lincoln  and  President  Johnson,  Mr.  Seward  has  been 
a  most  constant  and  trusted  adviser.  During  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  visit  to  Richmond,  Mr.  Seward  was  thrown  from 
a  carriage,  and  his  arm  and  jaw  were  broken.  He  was 
still  confined  to  his  bed  when  the  President  returned, 
and  making  his  first  visit  to  the  Secretary,  he  threw 
himself  down  across  the  foot  of  his  bed,  and  resting  his 
head  on  one  hand,  joyfully  told  the  story  of  his  trip 
and  of  the  entire  success  of  Grant,  ending  with  the 
words,  "  and  now  for  a  day  of  thanksgiving !"  The 
Secretary  advised,  however,  to  wait  until  Sherman  was 
heard  from,  to  which  Mr.  Lincoln  agreed,  though  with 
reluctance.  Mr.  Seward,  in  speaking  of  his  own  and 
Mr.  Lincoln's  agreement  as  to  government  measures, 
remarked  to  a  friend,  "  Xo  knife  was  ever  sharp  enough 
to  divide  us  upon  any  question  of  public  policy,  though 
we  frequently  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion  through 
different  processes  of  thought.  Once  only  did  we  dis 
agree  in  sentiment."  When  asked  on  what  occasion, 
the  answer  was,  "His  'colonization'  scheme;  which  I 
opposed  on  the  self-evident  principle  that  all  natives  of 
a  country  have  an  equal  right  to  the  soil." 

Mr.  Seward  was  made  a  victim  of  the  same  conspir 
acy  which  assassinated  Mr.  Lincoln.  While  confined 
helpless  to  his  bed  by  the  injuries  received  from  his 
fall,  he  was  attacked  by  a  powerful  young  man  named 
Lewis  Payne  Powell,  and  fearfully  stabbed  and  cut ; 
and  only  v.ery  wonderful  vigor  of  constitution  and  te 
nacity  of  life  could  have  enabled  him  to  recover  so  com 
pletely  from  injuries  so  serious.  Mr.  Carpenter's  ac 
count  of  the  way  in  which  Mr.  Seward  detected  the 
fact  of  the  President's  death,  which  his  attendants  had 


132  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

been  carefully  concealing  from  him,  is  striking.  He 
says : 

"The  Sunday  following,  he  had  his  bed  wheeled 
around  so  that  he  could  see  the  tops  of  the  trees  in  the 
park  opposite  his  residence — just  putting  on  their 
spring  foliage — Avhen  his  eyes  caught  sight  of  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  at  half-mast  on  the  War  Department,  on 
which  he  gazed  awhile,  then  turning  to  his  attendant 
said  :  '  The  President  is  dead  !'  The  confused  attend 
ant  stammered  as  he  tried  to  say  nay ;  but  the  Secre 
tary  could  not  be  deceived.  '  If  he  had  been  alive,  he 
would  have  been  the  first  to  call  on  me,'  he  continued ; 
1  but  he  has  not  been  here,  nor  has  he  sent  to  know  how 
I  am ;  and  there  is  the  flag  at  half-mast.7  The  states 
man's  inductive  reason  had  discerned  the  truth,  and  in 
silence  the  great  tears  coursed  down  his  gashed  cheeks 
as  it  sank  into  his  heart." 

Perhaps  the  chief  points  in  Mr.  Seward's  character 
may  be  summed  thus :  In  politics,  he  is  a  shrewd,  prac 
tical  manager;  in  statesmanship,  he  is  hopeful,  liberal, 
utilitarian,  and  far-sighted ;  in  mind,  he  is  always 
chiefly  a  reasoner  though  also  a  rhetorician,  and  a  reas- 
oner  from  first  principles,  with  a  peculiar  tendency  to 
forecasting.  Besides  these  chief  traits,  he  is  very  in 
dustrious,  independent,  self-reliant,  and  benevolent. 
There  have  also  been  indications  of  the  same  desire  in 
him  for  a  high  future  fame,  which  many  great  men  of 
ancient  times  possessed,  and  which  grows  rare  in  these 
days.  It  is  said  that  his  life-long  opposition  to  slavery 
was  first  brought  into  vivid  activity  by  an  incident  at 
the  South,  where  he  passed  a  portion  of  his  senior  col 
lege  year  as  a  teacher.  He  was  traveling,  it  appears, 


SEWAKD.  133 

on  horseback,  and  found  a  slave  woman,  with  a  miser 
able  old  blind  ''horse  and  a  bag  of  corn,  on  her  way  to 
mill,  but  afraid  to  try  to  cross  a  broken-down  bridge. 
In  trying  to  help  her  over,  the  old  horse  fell  partly 
through  the  bridge  and  stuck  fast.  The  young  man 
was  unable  to  get  him  out,  and  so  he  mounted  his  own 
horse,  rode  to  the  house  of  the  master  of  the  slave,  and 
told  him  the  story,  seeking  to  excuse  the  slave.  But 
the  planter  replied  with  a  monstrous  bombardment  of 
curses  on  himself,  the  slave,  the  horse,  the  bridge,  and 
pretty  much  everything  and  everybody.  The  whole 
affair  so  deeply  disgusted  him  that  the  impression  was 
never  forgotten. 

Besides  his  political  career  and  his  labors  as  a  lawyer, 
Mr.  Seward  has  shown  decided  ability  as  a  business 
man,  and  in  literature.  In  the  former  capacity  he  acted 
for  the  year  or  two  about  1836  when  he  served  as  agent 
to  settle  the  complicated  and  confused  affairs  of  the 
Holland  Land  Company,  which  he  adjusted  with  great 
tact  and  judgment.  His  literary  productions,  the  occa 
sional  hasty  work  of  scanty  leisure,  include  a  number  of 
addresses  on  anniversary  and  society  occasions,  obitu 
ary  orations  on  John  Quincy  Adams,  Daniel  O'Connell, 
Lafayette,  Henry  Clay,  Daniel  Webster,  and  others — 
a  published  biography  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  the 
historical  introduction  to  the  great  State  "  Natural  His 
tory  of  New  York." 

A  good  instance  of  the  effectiveness  of  Mr.  Seward's 
mode  of  arguing  from  general  principles  to  particular 
cases  occurred  in  the  New  York  Court  of  Errors  about 
1834.  This  court  was  the  court  of  final  appeal  in  the 
State,  and  consisted  of  the  chancellor,  the  judges  of  the 


13  i  THE    riCTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

Supreme  Court,  and  the  members  of  the  State  Senate. 
Mr.  Seward  was  the  youngest  member*'  of  this  court, 
but  a  diligent,  laborious,  and  useful  member.  On  the 
occasion  referred  to — the  case  of  Parks  vs.  Jackson,  the 
appeal  was  from  the  Supreme  Court,  where  a  technical 
legal  rule  had  been  so  applied  as  to  take  away  from 
certain  parties  estates  which  they  had  honestly  bought 
and  paid  for.  According  to  the  forms  of  the  Court  of 
Errors,  Judge  Nelson,  now  of  the  United  States  Su 
preme  Court,  then  of  the  State  Supreme  Court,  stated 
the  reasons  for  the  decision  of  his  court.  Then  Chan- 
ccllor^Wal worth  delivered  an  opinion,  in  which  he  de 
fended  the  decision.  Mr.  Seward  now  rose,  and  made 
an  argument  on  the  contrary  part,  in  which  he  urged 
the  claims  of  substantial  justice  as  higher  than  those 
of  an  arbitrary  legal  rule.  The  question  was  taken  on 
reversing  the  judgment.  The  judges  of  the  court  ap 
pealed  from  did  not  vote ;  but  except  Chancellor  Wai- 
worth,  who  abode  by  his  technics,  every  vote  was  given 
in  favor  of  the  reversal  which  Mr.  Seward  demanded. 

A  curious  and  characteristic  specimen  of  Mr.  Seward's 
methods  of  thought  when  applied  out  of  place,  and  of 
his  thorough  confidence  in  the  correctness  of  his  own 
views,  is  given  in  his  criticism  upon  Mr.  Carpenters 
great  commemorative  picture.  lie  rather  abruptly 
said  to  the  artist  one  evening,  "I  told  the  President  the 
other  day  that  you  were  painting  your  picture  on  a 
false  presumption."  The  artist,  surprised,  asked  why. 
The  Secretary  explained,  that  it  was  the  election  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  not  the  proclamation,  which  was  the 
death-knell  of  slavery ;  that  the  business  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  administration  was  not  abolition,  but  the  salva- 


BE  WARD.  135 

tion  of  the  nation;  and,  he  continued,  "Had  you  con 
sulted  me  for  a  subject  to  paint,  I  should  not  have  given 
you  the  Cabinet  Council  on  Emancipation,  but  the 
meeting  which  took  place  when  the  news  came  of  the 
attack  upon  Sumter,  when  the  first  measures  were  or 
ganized  for  the  restoration  of  the  national  authority. 
That  was  the  crisis  in  the  history  of  this  administration 
— not  the  issue  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation." 
And  referring  again  to  the  comparative  unimportance 
of  the  slavery  question,  he  continued :  "  If  I  am  to  be 
remembered  by  posterity,  let  it  not  be  as  having  loved 
predominantly  white  men  or  black  men,  but  as  one  who 
loved  his  country."  Mr.  Carpenter  argued  to  the  con 
trary,  but  the  Secretary  stuck  to  his  opinion.  "  Well," 
he  said,  "  you  may  think  so,  and  this  generation  may 
agree  with  you,  but  posterity  will  hold  a  different 
opinion."  It  may  be  added,  that  the  picture  of  Mr. 
Buchanan  in  the  corner,  white  with  terror,  and  with 
a  stump  of  a  cigar  between  his  teeth,  with  his  Cabinet 
quarreling  so  hard  that  he  had  to  turn  them  all  out, 
according  to  Mr.  Stanton's  description,  would  have 
been  a  strange  subject  to  adopt  as  the  characteristic 
scene  of  the  war.  In  this  preference  Mr.  Seward  was 
wrong.  His  reasoning  as  a  statesman  may  have  been 
correct  enough  in  one  sense,  but  the  chief  cause  or  oc 
casion  of  a  circumstance  is  not  necessarily  the  best  art 
istic  representation  of  its  spirit;  and  Mr.  Carpenter 
certainly  judged  justly  as  an  artist. 

The  position  and  attitude  of  Mr.  Seward  in  Mr.  Car 
penter's  picture  are  prominent  and  characteristic.  The 
Secretary  of  State  is  by  etiquette  the  senior  member 
of  the  Cabinet ;  Mr.  Seward  was,  moreover,  by  virtue 


136  THE    PICTURE   AND    THE    MEN. 

of  his  abilities,  attainments,  and  principles,  a  chief  ad 
viser  with  the  President,  unofficially.  So  he  sits  at  the 
front  of  the  table,  his  hand  rested  upon  it  in  an  argu 
mentative  posture,  with  fore-finger,  as  it  were,  dis 
tinguishing  the  exact  point  to  be  made.  The  face  ex 
presses  steady  sense  and  calm  thought,  as  the  Secretary 
advises  to  wait  for  military  success  before  the  issuing 
of  the  Proclamation,  instead  of  putting  it  forth  upon 
the  heels  of  disaster. 


CHASE.  13T 


VI, 
S.    P.    CHASE. 

SALMON  PORTLAND  CHASE  now  Chief-Justice  of  the 
United  States,  was  born  in  Cornish,  New  Hampshire, 
January  13,  1808.  His  .father  was  a  fanner,  and  the 
country  was  so  unsettled,  schools  so  scarce,  and  books  so 
costly,  that  when  a£  three  years  of  age  it  was  time  for 
the  boy  to  learn  his  letters,  they  were  set  down  for  him 
on  smooth  pieces  of  birch-bark. 

The  name  of  Chase  is  somewhat  widely  spread  in 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont.  It  is  said  that  it  was 
of  the  family  to  which  the  Chief-Justice  belongs,  that 
the  saying  was  first  uttered  which  has  since,  with  a  dif 
ference,  been  applied  to  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher.  The  story 
is  that  some  one  said  of  an  old  yellow  house  in  Corn 
ish,  long  the  Chase  homestead,  that  in  it  had  been  born 
more  brains  than  in  any  other  house  in  New  England. 
Philander  Chase,  the  eminent  pioneer  Episcopal  bishop 
of  Ohio,  was  the  Chief-Justice's  uncle ;  and  so  was 
Dudley  Chase,  at  one  time  United  States  senator  from 
Vermont.  Another  uncle,  Salmon,  a  lawyer  in  Port 
land,  had  died  there,  and  after  him  and  the  city  the 
Chief- Justice  was  named.  The  men  of  the  Chase  fam 
ily  are  tall,  strong,  large-framed,  large-headed,  decided, 
energetic,  and  progressive  men,  and  the  Chief-Justice 
does  no  discredit  to  his  kinsmen,  either  in  physique  or 
in  mind  and  will 


138  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

In  1815,  his  father,  Ithamar  Chase,  removed  to  Keene, 
to  superintend  a  glass  factory  there  in  which  he  was 
largely  interested ;  but  three  years  afterward  died  sud 
denly,  probably  by  a  sun-stroke.  His  affairs  were  at 
the  time  much  deranged  in  consequence  of  the  ruinous 
competition  of  English  glass  with  the  products  of  his 
factory;  and  the  widow,  upon  the  settlement  of  the  es 
tate,  was  able  to  retain  nothing,  either  from  the  factory, 
or  from  a  tavern,  or  a  farm  which  the  energetic  man 
had  carried  on  at  the  same  time  with  reasonable  suc 
cess.  But  Mrs.  Chase  had  much  of  the  prudence  and 
force  of  character  of  her  own  Scottish  ancestry,  and 
having  a  small  property  of  her  own,  she  removed  to  a 
little  cottage  in  the  neighborhood  and  set  to  work  with 
good  courage  and  full  faith  to  bring  up  her  children. 
Salmon,  with  one  of  his  sisters,  a  little  afterward  spent 
some  time  at  a  boarding-school,  in  Windsor,  Vt.,  where 
he  made  a  good  beginning  in  Latin,  and  where  he  par 
took  in  an  odd  style  of  chastisement,  invented  appa 
rently  by  the  Yankee  principal.  This  gentleman,  when 
the  boys  were  noisy  at  night  and  awoke  him,  used  to 
come  noiselessly  up  to  tlteir  door,  burst  in,  drag  them 
all  out  of  bed  by  the  hair  into  a  pile  in  the  middle  of 
the  floor,  and  disappear  to  allow  them  to  digest  his 
hint.  One  of  the  youths  shaved  his  hair  close  to  elude 
the  teacher's  hand  ;  but  only  to  discover  that  portions 
of  the  human  frame,  very  distant  from  the  head,  could 
also  be  made  to  suffer  pain. 

In  1820,  Bishop  Chase  offered  to  take  charge  of  the 
boy  in  Ohio  and  give  him  an  education,  and  with  an 
elder  brother  on  the  way  to  join  the  expedition  of  Gen 
eral  Cass  to  the  upper  Mississippi,  and  with  Mr.  School- 


CHASE.  139 

craft,  geologist  to  the  same  expedition,  he  went  West. 
The  party  stopped  at  Buffalo,  and  Alexander  Chase 
and  Mr.  Schoolcraft  made  a  two  days'  visit  to  Niagara, 
leaving  the  boy  behind  as  too  young.  He  was,  how 
ever,  quite  as  curious  and  enterprising  as  he  was  young ; 
and  finding  at  the  tavern  a  companion  of  his  own  age 
equally  desirous  to  see  the  Falls,  the  two  little  fellows 
walked  through  the  snow  twenty  miles  to  Niagara, 
saw  the  sight,  found  their  surprised  seniors,  and  return 
ed  with  them.  At  Cleveland  Salmon  stopped,  to  pro 
ceed  to  Worthington,  Ohio,  the  other  t\vo  going  on  to 
Detroit.  As  he  could  not  go  alone-  through  the  woods, 
he  had  to  wait  some  weeks  for  convoy  at  Cleveland, 
and  turned  the  time  to  account  by  running  a  sort  of 
extempore  ferry  across  the  Cuyahoga.  This  was  in 
order  to  pay  his  board  with  his  entertainer ;  but  that 
gentleman,  a  warm  admirer  of  Bishop  Chase,  refused 
to  accept  the  money. 

At  Worthington  young  Chase  remained  about  two 
years,  and  had  a  reasonably  severe  experience.  His 
uncle  the  bishop  was  a  somewhat  absolute  person  and 
stern  Jn  his  manner.  He  was  poor  besides;  for  in 
Ohio  in  those  days  money  was  so  scarce,  transportation 
so  dear,  produce  so  cheap,  and  postage  so  high,  that 
it  took  a  bushel  of  wheat  to  pay  the  postage  on  a 
letter,  and  the  bishop  used  to  say  that  all  the  rev 
enues  of  his  bishopric  would  not  pay  his  postage  bill. 
So  he  kept  a  school,  by  means  of  an  assistant,  and  car 
ried  on  a  farm,  as  unavoidable  means  for  supporting 
himself.  Salmon,  therefore,  not  being  a  boarder  like 
the  other  boys,  but  a  member  of  the  family,  had  to 
work  as  the  family  did,  "  doing  chores"  and  all  sorts  of 


14:0  THE   PICTURE   AND    TUE    LIEN. 

farm  labor,  and  learning  and  reciting  his  lessons  in  such 
other  time  as  he  could  command.  lie  toiled  resolutely 
through  everything,  however,  and  stood  well  in  his 
classes.  He  was  quite  near-sighted,  which  was  an  ad 
ditional  obstacle ;  and  he  lisped  considerably,  besides ; 
but  he  got  rid  of  this  last  difficulty  by  pursuing  for  a 
number  of  months  a  course  of  reading  aloud  for  the 
purpose.  Notwithstanding  the  arbitrary  and  severe 
ways  of  Bishop  Chase,  he  seems  to  have  discerned  the 
good  qualities  of  his  nephew ;  for  one  day,  when  the 
youth  asked  leave  to  go  in  swimming  with  some  other 
boys,  the  bishop  refused,  saying,  "  Why,  Salmon,  the 
country  might  lose  its  future  President  if  you  should 
get  drowned !" 

In  the  autumn  of  1822  Bishop  Chase  removed  to 
Cincinnati  to  take  charge  of  a  college  there,  and  took 
his  nephew  with  him.  The  youth  entered  freshman,  but 
worked  rapidly  ahead  of  the  regular  course  by  reciting 
privately  to  a  fellow-student,  so  that  he  was  soon  a*ble 
to  be  examined  for  and  enter  into  the  sophomore  class. 

When  in  1823  Bishop  Chase  left  Cincinnati  for  that 
journey  to  Europe  in  which  he  collected  the  mea^  of 
founding  Kenyon  College,  young  Chase  had  to  leave 
too,  and  coming  East  with  the  bishop  and  his  family, 
he  returned  home  to  Keene,  intending  to  enter  and 
graduate  at  Dartmouth.  After  an  unsuccessful  experi 
ment  at  teaching  district  school,  he  passed  the  winter 
at  home  in  study  ;  during  the  following  summer  passed 
a  short  time  at  the  academy  at  Royalton,  Vt,  and  then 
entered  junior  at  Dartmouth. 

Here  he  worked  as  hard  as  ever,  and  graduated  eighth 
in  rank.  He  was  in  those  days  occasionally  somewhat 


CHASE.  141 

absent-minded,  and  once,  pulling  off  his  trowsers,  with 
some  vague  notion  of  toilet  management,  and  beating 
them  over  a  chair  to  get  the  dust  out,  pounded  to 
pieces  his  wat^ch,  which  he  left  in  the  fob.  A  rather 
more  creditable  occurrence  during  his  college  days  at 
Dartmouth,  showed  the  same  quick  and  strong  sense 
of  justice  and  indignation  at  wrong  which  has  always 
been  a  prominent  trait  in  his  character.  A  class-mate 
was  sent  away  from  college  by  the  faculty  for  some 
transgression  of  which  he  was  not  guilty,  having  been 
given,  after  the  fashion  of  faculty  tribunals,  twenty-four 
hours  in  which  to  confess  what  he  did  not  do,  and  hav 
ing  been  refused  permission  to  see  his  accuser.  Young 
Chase  hereupon  remonstrated  with  the  president,  but 
without  avail,  and  he  therefore  coolly  told  the  digni 
tary  that  he  would  also  leave,  as  he  did  not  wish  to  re 
main  where  his  friends  were  liable  to  such  injustice. 
They  -went  together,  accordingly,  their  class-mates 
agreeing  in  regret  for  the  injustice  of  the  action.  But 
they  had  not  driven  fairly  out  of  sight  in  their  old  gig, 
before  a  student  rode  aft£r  them  to  notify  them  that  the 
sentence  was  reconsidered  and  that  they  might  return. 
They,  however,  observed  that  they  must  have  a  few 
days  in  which  to  see  if  they  would  reconsider ;  and 
taking  a  week's  vacation,  they  Avent  back. 

In  the  autumn  of  1826  the  young  man  went  to  Wash 
ington,  where  his  uncle,  Dudley  Chase,  was  senator  from 
Vermont.  His  intention-was  to  set  up  a  private  school, 
but  having  advertised  and  waited  in  vain  until  his  last 
dollar  was  gone,  he  asked  his  uncle  to  obtain  him  a 
place  under  the  Government.  The  senator,  however, 
replied  that  he  had  once  obtained  an  appointment  for 


142  TUE    PICTURE   AND   TUB   MEN. 

a  nephew,  and  it  ruined  him.  And  he  added,  "  If  you 
want  half  a  dollar  to  buy  a  spade  and  go  out  and 
dig  for  a  living,  I'll  give  it  to  you  cheerfully ;  but  I 
will  not  get  you  a  place  under  Government."  The  dis 
couraged  youth  departed,  and  waited  some  time  longer, 
until  by  good  fortune  a  certain  Mr.  Plinnlcy  made  over 
to  him  his  classical  school,  already  established  and  prof 
itable.  This  was  in  consequence  of  the  still  greater  suc 
cess  of  a  girls'  school  which  Mrs.  Plumley  had  opened, 
and  which  required  the  labor  of  both.  Many  years 
afterward,  Mr.  Chase,  when  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
had  the  pleasure  of  returning  Mr.  Plumley's  kindness 
when  a  return  was  needed,  by  giving  him  a  good  posi 
tion  in  the  Treasury  Department. 

Mr.  Chase  continued  his  school  until  the  end  of  1839. 
During  this  period  he  decided  to  study  law,  having 
been  hitherto  uncertain  whether  not  to  become  a  cler 
gyman,  lie  now,  however,  entered  the  office  of  William 
Wirt  as  a  student,  and  became  also  a  visitor  at  his 
house.  From  the  savings  of  his  income,  now  quite  a 
good  one  for  him,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  repaying  to 
his  mother  the  money  she  had  advanced  him,  and  of 
securing  to  one  of  his  sisters  a  good  education.  A  cu 
rious  occurrence  during  this  same  period  also  seemed 
to  mark  a  great  change  in  his  health  and  personal  ap 
pearance.  He  had  always  been  slender,  pale,  and 
stooping,  and  this  latter  defect  he  set  about  trying  to 
remedy.  As  he  stood  one  morning  stretching  himself 
up  straight  by  the  fire,  all  at  once  a  sensation  of  faint- 
ness  came  over  him  and  something  in  his  side  seemed 
to  give  way  and  sink  down.  A  physician  told  him  that 
this  was  the  breaking  of  some  inward  adhesion  conse- 


CHASE.  14o 

qucnt  upon  his  habit  of  stooping,  and  that  its  rupture 
was  a  good  thing.  The  young  man  now  arranged  his 
desk  and  organized  a  set  of  exercises,  to  correct  his 
stoop.  He  succeeded  entirely,  and  from  that  time  he 
grew  straight  and  strong,  until  he  acquired  the  erect 
and  massive  dignity  of  person  which  has  been  so  con 
spicuous  in  his  manhood. 

In  February,  1830,  the  young  law-student  passed  his 
examination  for  admission  to  the  bar,  and  at  its  close 
was  recommended  to  read  another  year.  But  he  an 
swered  that  that  was  inconsistent  with  his  plans,  as  he 
had  made  all  his  arrangements  to  go  into  practice  at 
Cincinnati. 

"  To  Cincinnati  ?"  said  the  examining  judge,  as  much 
as  to  say,  "  You  know  enough  for  that !"  and  continued, 
with  a  smile,  "  Mr.  Clerk,  swear  in  Mr.  Chase." 

The  young  lawyer  went  to  Cincinnati,  then  a  rapidly 
growing  place  of  about  25,000  inhabitants,  and  opened 
his  office  accordingly.  His  early  experience  here  as  a 
lawyer  was  much  like  that  of  the  outset  of  his  career  as 
a  teacher  at  Washington.  For  a  long  time  he  had  ab 
solutely  no  business  except  drawing  one  agreement  for  a 
chance  customer  who  paid  him  half  a  dollar,  and  about 
a  week  afterward  came  and  borrowed  it  back !  When 
reduced  almost  to  despair,  however,  as  in  Washington, 
he  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  a  friend,  a  Mr.  John 
Young,  who  loaned  him  without  security  "all  the 
money  he  wanted."  After  a  long  time  a  little  business 
came  in.  His  employers  found  him  faithful  and  com 
petent,  and  were  pretty  sure  to  come  back  to  him. 
Having  once  fairly  started,  his  legal  career  was  one  of 
steady  and  increasing  success,  and  was  marked  by 


144  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

many  occurrences  of  interest.  In  his  very  first  case  of 
any  importance  the  judge  charged  directly  against  him, 
but  the  jury  found  in  his  favor.  In  the  next  case  he 
attacked  and  broke  down  together  the  testimony  and 
the  character  of  a  notoriously  violent  fellow,  an  import 
ant  witness  against  him,  who  threatened  to  have  his 
blood.  Mr.  Chase's  friends  begged  him  to  arm  him 
self,  but  he  declined,  and  the  fellow  at  the  close  of  the 
court  put  himself  in  the  lawyer's  way  with  the  evident 
intention  of  assaulting  him.  But  so  calm  and  stern 
was  the  lawyer's  face  that  the  rowdy's  heart  failed  him, 
and  he  walked  off. 

In  1834  Mr.  Chase  went  to  Columbus  to  make  his 
first  argument  before  a  United  States  court.  On  rising 
to  speak,  he  was  so  much  agitated  by  apprehensions 
about  what  was  to  him  a  matter  of  so  much  importance, 
that  he  could  not  utter  a  single  sentence.  He  sat  down, 
and  recovering  himself,  and  in  a  great  rage  at  himself 
for  his  failure,  he  rose  again  in  a  few  moments,  deliver 
ed  his  argument,  and  then  sat  down  again,  still  in  deep 
mortification  at  his  false  start.  It  was  therefore  with 
surprise  that  he  saw  one  of  the  judges  come  and  shake 
his  hand,  saying,  smilingly,  "  I  congratulate  you  most 
sincerely !" 

"  On  what,  sir  ?"  asked  the  puzzled  lawyer. 

"On  your  failure,"  said  the  judge.  "A  person  of 
ordinary  temperament  and  abilities  would  have  gone 
through  his  part  without  any  such  symptoms  of  nerv 
ousness.  But  when  I  see  a  young  man  break  down 
once  or  twice  in  that  way,  I  conceive  the  highest  hopes 
of  him." 

In  this  same  year  Mr.  Chase  married  and  established 


CHASE.  145 

in  Cincinnati  a  home  of  his  own,  and  has  ever  since 
been  a  resident  of  that  city  except  when  at  Washing 
ton.  During,  or  before  these  earliest  years  of  his  pros 
perity,  Mr.  Chase  compiled  a  very  thorough  edition  of 
the  Ohio  statutes  in  three  octavo  volumes,  with  full 
notes  and  an  introductory  history  of  the  State.  As  no 
complete  edition  had  before  been  published,  the  work 
was  a  very  great  assistance  to  the  legal  profession,  and 
quickly  became  the  standard  edition,  recognized  as 
authority  in  all  the  courts.  This  work  was  in  itself  of 
small  direct  pecuniary  profit,  but  it  materially  advanced 
the  author's  reputation.  He  soon  became  solicitor  of 
the  United  States  Bank  at  Cincinnati,  and  also  of  one 
of  the  city  banks,  and  rose  into  a  very  good  practice. 

Those  who  become  senators  of  the  United  States 
have  to  prepare  the  way  for  election  to  that  body  by 
becoming  influential  in  the  politics  of  their  State.  Mr. 
Chase's  public  career  from  about  183G,  the  date  of  the 
Cincinnati  mob  which  destroyed  Mr.  Birney's  aboli 
tionist  newspaper,  the  Philanthropist,  brought  him 
into  such  a  position.  The  road  which  he  followed  was 
that  successively  of  abolitionist  lawyer,  Liberty  party 
man,  Free-soiler,  and  Republican,  and  in  this  road  he 
not  only  gratified  his  intense  love  of  justice  and  human 
right,  and  his  intense  hatred  of  wrong  and  oppression, 
but,  as  it  happened,  represented  and  led  from  the  first  a 
very  considerable  and  increasing  number  of  the  voters 
of  Ohio.  This  State  was  so  largely  settled  from  New 
England,  and  imbued  with  New  England  morals,  that 
it  adopted  early  the  anti-slavery  tenets  of  the  best 
Eastern  minds.  More  than  this — it  is  always  found 
that  good  things  from  the  East  grow  large  and  strong 
10 


14:6  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

when  they  arc  transplanted  to  the  West,  like  trees 
transferred  to  a  richer  and  deeper  soil ;  and  thus  Ohio 
quickly  became  the  strongest  anti-slavery  State  in  the 
Union,  except,  perhaps,  Massachusetts. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  mob  before  mentioned,  their 
noise  had  attracted  Mr.  Chase's  attention,  and  he  had 
gone  into  the  streets  to  see  the  proceedings.  While 
they  confined  themselves  to  a  forcible  entry  into  Mr. 
Birney's  printing-office,  and  the  destruction  of  his 
presses,  type,  paper,  and  other  stock,  he  did  not  inter 
fere.  But  when  he  heard  them  threatening  to  seize 
Mr.  Birney  himself,  he  hastened  by  another  road  round 
to  the  hotel  where  Mr.  Birney  was  living,  and  quietly 
stood  in  the  doorway  when  they  came  up.  As  the 
foremost  would  have  forced  a  way  in,  he  ordered  them 
back,  and  argued  with  them  at  the  same  time  against 
either  assaulting  him  or  injuring  the  premises.  He 
thus  delayed  them  some  time,  until  just  as  they  were 
getting  so  impatient  as  to  be  apparently  on  the  point 
of  making  a  rush,  a  well-known  citizen  appeared  and 
assured  the  crowd  that  Mr.  Birney  was  certainly  no 
where  in  the  house,  and  they  went  disappointed  away. 
It  was  true.  He  had  escaped  while  Mr.  Chase  singly 
held  back  the  mob,  very  probably  saving  the  life  of  the 
"  abolitionist." 

Almost  immediately  after  this,  Mr.  Chase  began  a 
noble  series  of  unpaid  defenses  of  colored  persons  seized 
as  fugitive  slaves.  This  he  did  against  a  tremendously 
bitter  and  angry  public  opinion,  against  the  perfectly 
open  pro-judgments  of  the  courts,  and  out  of  devotion  to 
justice  and  to  the  cause  of  the  oppressed.  The  first  of 
these  cases  was  that  of  the  slave-girl  Matilda,  seized  in 


CHASE.  147 

Cincinnati  as  a  fugitive  slave  in  1837,  in  whose  defense 
Mr.  Chase  argued  on  habeas  corpus  before  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas.  The  defense  failed,  and  the  girl  was 
surrendered  to  her  owner  and  carried  back.  As  Mr. 
Chase  went  out  of  the  court-room,  a  certain  conserva 
tive  and  respectable  citizen  observed,  "There  goes  a 
promising  young  man  who  has  just  ruined  himself." 
But  not  only  was  this  series  of  defenses  a  principal 
reason  in  general  for  Mr.  Chase's  influence  and  popu 
larity  with  the  .Free-soil  party  and  the  Republican 
party,  but  this  very  case,  where  the  wiseacre  thought 
him  "  ruined,"  was  a  direct  and  important  cause  of  his 
election  to  the  United  States  Senate.  There  happened 
to  be  present  during  this  argument  a  young  medical 
student  named  Townsend,  who  was  afterward,  in  1848, 
a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  was  an  earnest  advo 
cate  of  Mr.  Chase's  election.  As  belonging  to  neither 
party,  he  had  much  influence  with  the  more  liberal  of 
the  Democrats,  and  with  a  few  more  of  the  same 
opinions  he  succeeded  in  repealing  a  disgraceful  code 
of  "  Black  Laws"  then  in  force  in  Ohio,  and  in  securing 
Mr.  Chase's  election. 

In  1842  came  up  the  famous  Van  Zandt  case.  Van 
Zandt, -who  was  the  original  of  Van  Tromp  in  Mrs. 
Stowe's  novel  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  had  been  sued 
for  damages  for  carrying  off  certain  fugitive  slaves. 
lie  did  not  know  them  to  be  such,  however,  though  he 

'  7  O 

may  have  suspected  it.  Mr.  Chase's  argument  in  de 
fense  of  Van  Zandt  was  a  wonderfully  powerful  and 
convincing  argument.  It  seemed  to  entirely  convince 
court,  jury,  and  spectators,  and  the  slaveholding  plain 
tiff  himself,  under  the  influence  of  this  eloquent  plea  for 


14:8  THE    PICTURE   AND    THE   MEN. 

human  .rights,  came  to  Mr.  Chase,  acknowledged  that 
he  was  in  the  wrong,  said  he  did  not  doubt  that  he 
had  lost  his  case,  and  that  lie  was  sorry  for  having 
brought  the  action.  So  the  plaintiff,  as  well  as  every 
body  else,  was  astounded  when  the  jury  gave  him  a 
verdict.  A  second  suit  was  brought  against  Van 
Zandt,  for  a  penalty  for  having  "  harbored  and  con 
cealed"  fugitives,  and  this  was  carried  up  to  the  Su 
preme  Court  at  Washington  by  the  defense.  Mr. 
Chase  and  Mr.  Seward  argued  it,  Avithout  compensa 
tion;  but  that  court,  then,  and  long  afterward,  the 
strongest  citadel  of  the  slave  power,  confirmed  the  de 
cision  of  the  courts  below,  and  Van  Zandt  had  to  pay 
the  money.  These  two  losses  pretty  much  ruined  him ; 
but  he  is  not  known  to  have  regretted  the  action  for 
which  he  suffered. 

In  the  Watson  case,  the  Rosctta  case,  the  Parish 
case,  and  other  well-known  fugitive-slave  cases  occur 
ring  during  the  period  from  1845  to  185G,  Mr.  Chase 
served  with  unfailing  ardor  the  cause  of  freedom.  The 
prevailing  pro-slavery  opinions  of  the  community  and 
the  courts  alike  rendered  this  work  futile  so  far  as  con 
cerned  the  wretched  negroes  who  were  regularly  thrust 
back  into  the  pit  they  had  struggled  out  of.  But  the 
labor  was  done  for  the  sake  of  the  principle  involved;  and 
no  such  series  of  efforts  can  be  made  on  the  right  side 
without  causing  a  gradual  change  in  public  sentiment. 
This  change,  proceeding  in  Ohio  as  in 'the  whole  North, 
was  largely  caused  by  Mr.  Chase's  powerful  and  fear 
less  advocacy  of  the  helpless  and  penniless  victims  that 
he  could  not  save,  and  at  the  earliest  possible  moment 
he  took  care  to  organize  his  friends  into  one  of  those 


CHASE.  149 

party  machines  which,  in  the  United  States,  must  be 
set  up  before  a  political  principle  can  be  embodied  in 
the  laws.  Mr.  Chase  has  been  called  "  the  Father  of 
the  Republican  party."  He  was  at  any  rate  one  of  the 
earliest  and  chiefest  of  those  who  formed  the  "Liberty 
party,"  and  who  rose  with  it  as  it  expanded  into  the 
"  Free -soil  party,"  and  then  into  the  "Republican 
party."  In  1841  he  assembled  a  small  meeting  at  Cin 
cinnati  and  addressed  it,  in  explanation  of  the  doc 
trines  on  which  a  party  for  freedom  could  be  organized, 
and  he  then  went  on  to  issue  a  call  for  a  convention  of 
those  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  at  Columbus. 
This  Avas  a  line  of  political  action  so  unpopular  that 
the  newspaper  editors — who  have  a  pretty  keen  scent 
for  such  qualities — would  not  publish  his  call,  and  he 
had  to  pay  for  it  as  an  advertisement.  But  the  con 
vention  met,  issued  an  address  written  by  Mr.  Chase, 
and  organized  the  Liberty  party. 

He  was  now  a  political  leader,  and  from  this  time 
forward  he  gave  whatever  of  his  life  could  be  spared 
from  his  business  to  the  service  of  the  new  party.  In 
1843  he  assisted  at  the  National  Liberty  Convention 
at  Buffalo  ;  in  1845  he  was  the  chief  means  of  gather 
ing  a  "  Southern  and  Western  Liberty  Convention"  at 
Cincinnati.  He  was  prominent  at  the  Free  Territory 
State  Convention  of  Ohio  in  1848,  and  was  chairman 
of  the  Buffalo  Convention  of  that  year.  Mr.  Birney 
was  the  first  anti-slavery  candidate  for  President.  In 
1840,  he  had  received  about  7,000  votes,  Scattering  and 
spontaneous  testimonials  rather  than  from  an  organized 
effort.  In  1844  he  received  about  62,700 — enough,  it 
was  considered,  to  reduce  Mr.  Clay's  vote  and  give  the 


150  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

Presidency  to  Mr.  Polk  ;  and  most  furious  was  the 
anger  of  the  Whigs  against  what  they  considered  the 
unjust  and  wicked  trick.  Of  course,  when  so  many 
voters  began  to  declare  for  any  principle,  the  regular 
party  leaders  could  begin  to  see  that  the  principle 
might  be  correct,  and  the  Ohio  Democratic  State  Con 
vention  took  distinct  ground  against  slavery  extension. 
Upon  this,  Mr.  Chase  joined  himself  politically  with 
that  party,  giving  them  at  the  same  time  notice  that 
he  should  leave  them  when  they  left  that  ground.  He 
did  as  he  had  said  in  1852,  on  their  accepting  the 
Pierce  platform. 

It  was  by  a  coalition  between  the  Democrats  and 
Free-soilcrs  of  Ohio,  greatly  promoted,  as  we  have 
already  described,  by  Dr.  Townsend,  that  Mr.  Chase 
was  elected  United  States  senator,  February  22d,  1849, 
and  returned  as  an  influential  ruler  of  the  land,  to  the 
city  which  he  had  left  nineteen  years  before,  an  obscure 
and  unfledged  lawyer.  He  entered  the  Senate  at  the 
same  time  with  Mr.  Seward,  and  his  labors  as  a  states 
man,  like  Mr.  Seward's,  were  devoted  to  the  cause  of 
freedom.  With  the  same  powerful  indignation  against 
injustice  that  had  impelled  him  in  the  Ohio  fugitive- 
slave  cases,  he  fought  the  advance  of  the  slave  power, 
and  also  with  the  same  apparent  certainty  of  defeat ; 
for  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  and  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1854,  seemed  at  the  time 
to  be  permanent  gains  for  slavery. 

As  his  senatorial  term  grew  toward  a  close,  the  Re 
publican  party  had  risen  into  existence,  developing 
from  the  Free -soil  party  as  that  had  grown  from 
the  Liberty  party.  The  now  party  in  1855  nom- 


CHASE.  151 

inated  and  elected  him  Governor  of  Ohio,  in  which 
office  he  served  for  two  consecutive  terms,  with  great 
dignity,  judgment,  energy,  and  consistency  to  his  prin 
ciples.  During  the  first  of  these  terms,  in  1856,  he  de 
clined  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Presidential  nom 
ination,  although  urged  by  many  influential  friends.  It 
was  in  1856,  also,  that  the  Garner  case  occurred  at  Cin- 
cinati,  made  horribly  famous  by  the  frantic  conduct  of 
Margaret  Garner,  who,  finding  herself  about  to  be  cap 
tured  by  the  slave-hunters,  snatched  up  a  butcher-knife, 
declared  that  she  would  kill  all  her  children  before  they 
should  be  carried  back,  and  did  actually  kill  one  poor 
little  girl  three  years  old.  Margaret,  her  husband,  and 
the  rest  of  the  party  of  fugitives,  were  secured  by 
State  officers,  and  would  probably  have  escaped  had 
not  some  rapid  legal  hocus-pocus  and  connivance  at 
Cincinnati  hurried  them  out  of  State  custody  into  that 
of  a  slave-hunting  United  States  marshal,  who  thrust 
them  into  an  omnibus,  guarded  them  with  a  force  of 
five  hundred  special  deputies,  and  ran  them  off  over 
the  river  into  Kentucky,  while  Governor  Chase  was  at 
Columbus  at  the  annual  session  of  the  Legislature. 
They  disappeared  into  slavery,  and  have  never  been 
heard  of  since. 

In  the  next  year*  some  Kentucky  deputy  marshals 
went  on  a  regular  slave-hunt  into  Ohio,  where  they  re 
sisted  the  State  authority,  fired  on  the  sheriff  of  Cham 
paign  County,  escaped  into  Green  County,  resisted  and 
fired  on  the  sheriff  of  that  county  also,  but  finally  had 
to  surrender  and  go  to  jail  at  Xenia,  They,  however, 
were  quickly  released  on  habeas  corpus  by  Judge 
Leavitt,  of  Cincinnati,  the  same  person  who  had  so 


152  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

swiftly  sent  off  the  miserable  Garners  into  slavery. 
This  Green  County  case  was  violently  asserted,  by  the 
political  party  opposed  to  Governor  Chase,  to  be  an 
actual  armed  attack  by  him  or  his  friends  upon  the 
United  States  Government.  This  absurd  charge  did 
no  harm.  Indeed,  the  occurrences,  themselves  were  in 
directly  of  vast  benefit  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  though 
so  inauspicious  in  themselves.  The  result  of  such  de 
cisions  as  those  of  this  Judge  Leavitt  was,  to  assert 
that  a  State  could  not  execute  its  civil  or  criminal  pro 
cess  if  such  execution  interfered  with  the  doings  of 
claimants  under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  As  no  such 
claim  was  set  up  in  any  other  case,  the  distinction  was 
so  invidious  and  so  very  discreditable,  that  it  did  much 
to  make  that  law  odious  to  the  public,  and  to  prepare 
for  the  overthrow  of  slavery. 

Mr.  Chase,  who  had  been  again  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  was  a  member  of  that  "  Peace  Conven 
tion"  which  met  in  Washington  in  consequence  of  the 
invitation  of  Virginia,  given  in  February,  1860.  In 
this  convention  he  was  perfectly  willing,  to  assure  the 
revolting  States  of  what  they  already  knew  very  well 
— that  their  rights  were  not  going  to  be  invaded — but 
he  was  firm  in  the  conviction  that  they  ought  at  the 
same  time  to  be  notified  that  slavery  would  not  be  al 
lowed  any  further  extension.  The  convention  could 
not,  however,  resolve  upon  so  decided  a  course  of  con 
duct,  and  accomplished  nothing.  When  threats  were 
made  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  not  be  inaugurated  un 
less  certain  concessions  were  made  by  the  Republican 
party,  Mr.  Chase  responded  with  four  words,  which 
were  at  the  time  quite  a  rallying  cry  :  "  Inauguration 


CHASE.  153 

first,  adjustment  afterward."  The  inauguration  took 
place  accordingly,  and  Mr.  Chase  was  appointed  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury.  This  appointment  had  been  of 
fered  to  him  by  Mr.  Lincoln  a  little  after  his  election, 
but  he  had  not  accepted,  feeling  disinclined  to  exchange 
his  senatorship  for  the  management  of  a  financial  con 
cern  Avith  such  very  doubtful  and  disorderly  prospects 
as  those  of  the  Treasury.  His  nomination  was,  how- 
CA'er,  sent  in  to  the  Senate,  as  it  happened  in  his  ab 
sence,  and  Avas  at  once  confirmed  unanimously.  On 
returning  and  finding  Avhat  had  happened,  he  Avent  at 
once  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  haAre  the  Avork  undone.  But 
Mr.  Lincoln  insisted  upon  it  that  he  must  stay,  and 
so  did  several  of  his  most  valued  friends,  and  he  con 
sented. 

His  management  of  the  finances  of  the  United  States 
during  the  beginning  and  main  stress  of  the  rebellion 
Avas  remarkably  successful,  and  his  money  policy  has 
been  substantially  folloAved  by  his  successors.  He  raised 
by  one  loan  after  another,  the  money  needed  for  the 
rapidly  increasing  land  and  sea  forces  of  the  United 
States,  until  the  suspension  of  specie  payment  by  the 
banks  of  the  country  at  the  end  of  1861  shoAved 
that  the  end  of  the  supply  available  from  the  existing 
financial  organization  of  the  country  had  been  reached. 
He  then  carried  into  operation,  Avith  some  difficulty  and 
some  resistance,  the  plan  of  issuing  a  legal-tender 
United  States  currency,  and  of  organizing  the  banking 
interest  so  that  it  should  be  forced  to  use  LTnited  States 
bonds  as  a  basis  of  business,  having  its  own  notes 
clothed  with  a  national  character  in  return.  These 
two  arrangements,  together  with  the  skillful  negotia- 


154:  THE   PICTURE   AND  THE  MEN. 

tion  of  subsequent  loans,  carried  the  United  States  safe 
through  the  war  so  far  as  the  supply  of  money  was 
concerned,  and  effected  something  else  besides.  The 
plan  caused  the  money  interest — indeed,  the  money  ex 
istence — of  the  banks  and  the  Government  to  be  abso 
lutely  identical ;  and  without  doubting  the  patriotism 
of  the  capitalists  of  the  United  States,  it  can  well  be 
believed  that  they  would  not  feel  any  less  interest  in 
the  success  of  a  cause  in  which  all,  or  almost  all,  their 
means  were  thus  ingeniously  invested. 

When  Mr.  Chase  resigned  the  secretaryship  of  the 
Treasury,  June  30,  1864,  the  work  to  which  he  had  set 
his  hand  was  either  completed,  or  so  distinctly  planned 
that  other  hands  could  continue  it.  In  the  summer  of 
that  year  he  for  the  second  time  declined  to  allow  him 
self  to  be  nominated  for  President,  not  wishing  to  head 
an  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 

On  the  12th  of  October  following  died  Roger  B. 
Taney,  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  on  the 
6th  of  December  following,  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  Mr. 
Chase  to  that  high  position.  He  accepted  it,  and  now 
fills  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  intended  to  make  this  ap 
pointment  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  aged  previous  in 
cumbent,  ever  since  his  accession  to  -the  Presidency. 
And  it  was  one  which  combined  in  a  very  rare  degree 
fitness  of  personal  selection  and  striking  poetical  justice. 
It  was  most  just  that  the  highest  legal  place  in  the 
land,  so  long  the  very  impregnable  citadel  and  arsenal 
of  the  slave  power,  the  place  whence  issued  the  ungod 
ly  Dred  Scott  decision,  should  now  be  occupied  by  that 
"  promising  young  man  who  had  just  ruined  himself," 
by  vainly  striving  to  secure  freedom  to  a  miserable 


CHASE.  155 

negro  girl  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  before,  and 
who  bad  been  fighting  ever  since  a  battle  seemingly 
hopeless  against  the  doctrines  and  decisions  which  he 
was  now  to  be  able  to  contradict  and  reverse.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  to  imagine  a  more  completely  perfect 
picture  of  a  noble  revenge  than  Salmon  Portland 
Chase  delivering  judgments  on  the  side  of  freedom  from 
the  chair  of  Roger  Brooke  Taney. 


15(5  THE    PICTUliE   AND   THE    MEN. 


VII. 
CALEB    BLOOD    SMITH. 

SECRETARY  SMITH,  of  the  Interior,  appears  in  Mr. 
Carpenter's  picture  as  the  tall  and  personable  gentle 
man  who  stands  behind  the  table,  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  left 
hand.  With  him  is  the  thin  and  upright  form  of  Mr. 
Blair,  Postmaster-General.  Caleb  Blood  Smith  was  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  having  been  born  in  Boston, 
April  16,  1808.  When  he  was  a  boy  of  six,  his  parents 
removed  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  which  was  in  that  day  "  The 
Far  West."  Young  Smith  went  through  college  in 
Ohio,  beginning  his  course  at  Cincinnati  College,  and 
graduating  at  Miami  University,  and  after  studying 
law  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  opened  an  office  at 
Conncrsville,  Indiana.  Hon.  O.  H.  Smith,  himself  sub 
sequently  United  States  senator  from  Indiana,  was  the 
lawyer  with  whom  the  future  Secretary  studied.  He 
thus  relates  their  first  interview,  and  his  opinions  of  his 
student. 

"  Oue  day  I  was  sitting  in  my  office  at  Connersville,  when 
there  entered  a  small  youth,  about  five  feet  eight  inches  high, 
large  head,  thin  brown  hair,  light  blue  eyes,  high,  capacious 
forehead  nnd  good  features,  and  introduced  himself  as  Caleb  B, 
Smith,  from  Cincinnati.  He  stated  his  business  in  a  lisping 
tone.  He  had  come  to  read  law  with  me  if  I  Avould  receive 
him.  I  assented  to  his  wishes,  and  he  remained  with  me  until 
he  was  admitted  to  practice,  and  commenced  his  professional 
as  well  as  political  career  at  Connersville.  He  rose  rapidly  at 


SMITH.  157 

the  bar,  was  remarkably  fluent,  rapid x  and  eloquent  before  the 
jury,  never  at  a  loss  for  ideas  or  words  to  express  them;  if  he 
had  a  fault  as  an  advocate,  it  was  that  he  suffered  his  nature  to 
press  forward  his  ideas,  for  utterance  faster  than  the  minds  of 
the  jurors  were  prepared  to  receive  them;  still,  he  was  very 
successful  before  the  court  and  jury.  Pie  was  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  and  powerful  speakers  in  the  United  States." 

Mr.  Smith  early  turned  his  attention  to  political  life, 
and  became  an  influential  member  of  the  Whig  party 
in  Indiana,  serving  in  the  Legislature  of  that  State  dur 
ing  the  four  consecutive  years  from  1833  to  1836,  and 
being  Speaker  of  the  House  in  1835  and  1836.  In  1840 
he  was  one  of  the  Whig  electors  who  voted  for  General 
Harrison  for  President,  and  during  his  State  political 
career  he  also  held  the  responsible  financial  public 
office  of  State  Fund  Commissioner  for  Indiana.  He 
was  a  member  of  Congress  from  the  fourth  district  of 
the  State  during  that  interesting  period  from  1843  to 
1847,  being  the  last  part  of  Mr.  Tyler's  administra 
tion  and  the  first  part  of  Mr.  Folk's,  when  the  Oregon 
question,  with  its  alliterative  war-cry  of  "Fifty-four 
forty,  or  fight !"  stirred  the  country  up  so  thoroughly 
about  England,  and  when  the  annexation  of  Texas  and 
the  subsequent  Mexican  war  showed  so  plainly  how 
bold,  how  large,  and  how  dishonest  were  the  plans  in 
operation  to  "  extend  the  area  of  freedom"  for  the  use 
of  slavery.  Mr.  Smith's  course  in  Congress  was  one  of 
creditable  and  consistent  co-operation  with  his  party. 
His  efficiency  as  a  working  member  caused  him  to  be 
appointed  after  the  war  as  Commissioner  of  the  Board 
for  adjusting  war-claims  against  Mexico ;  and  having 
completed  this  task,  he  established  himself  at  Cincin 
nati  in  the  practice  of  the  law. 


158  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

When  the  Republican  party  was  organized,  Mr. 
Smith  joined  it,  and  was  on  the  Ohio  Fremont  electoral 
ticket  in  1856.  Two  years  later,  in  1858,  he  removed 
again  to  Indianapolis,  and  was  there  in  practice  at  the 
bar  when  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  Secretary  of  the 
Interior.  This  office  was  originally  suggested  in  the 
session  of  1848-9,  by  Mr.  R.  J.  Walker,  then  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  who  found  his  own  hands  overloaded 
with  work.  It  includes  the  care  of  Patents,  Public 
Lands,  the  accounts  of  U.  S.  Marshals  and  other  law 
officers,  Indian  Affairs,  Pensions,  the  Census,  Public 
Buildings,  etc.,  being  a  department  for  the  home  and 
domestic  business  of  the  United  States.  The  law 
creating  it  was  passed  March  3, 1849,  and  Hon.  Thomas 
Ewing  was  the  first  Secretary.  Mr.  Smith  had  long 
been  a  political  and  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
was  appointed  with  full  knowledge  of  his  fitness  for  the 
place. 

In  this  responsible  and  important  trust  Secretary 
Smith  labored  steadily  and  successfully,  until  his  ap 
pointment  to  be  U.  S.  Judge  for  the  District  of  Indi 
ana,  which  was  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  December  22, 
1862;  and  he  was  succeeded  in  his  place  at  Washing 
ton  by  Hon.  John  P.  Usher,  also  an  Indiaman,  Jan.  8, 
1863.  Judge  Smith  died  only  a  few  months  after  his 
appointment,  leaving  an  unspotted  personal  and  official 
reputation. 


WELLES.  159 

Yin. 

GIDEON   WELLES. 

THE  grave,  reflective  features,  long  beard,  and  wig 
of  Secretary  Welles  are  familiar  to  most  persons,  so 
extensively  has  his  portrait  been  placed  before  the  pub 
lic,  either  in  earnest  or  in  jest.  In  Mr.  Carpenter's 
picture  he  sits  beyond  the  table,  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  left 
hand,  between  him  and  the  group  of  Messrs.  Smith, 
Blair,  and  Bates. 

Mr.  Welles  descends  from  one  of  the  oldest  Puritan 
stocks,  being  the  sixth  in  direct  descent  from  Thomas 
Welles,  Governor  of  Connecticut  in  1655  and  1658. 
The  Secretary's  brother,  Thaddeus,  still  occupies  the 
same  farm  in  Glastenbury  which  their  ancestor  the  Pu 
ritan  Governor  bought  of  Sowheag,  the  great  Indian 
sachem  at  Middletown,  two  hundred  years  ago.  This 
is  a  long  time,  in  a  country  of  cheap  conveyances  of 
land,  for  real  estate  to  remain  in  the  same  family.  Mr. 
Welles'  father  lived  to  be  80 ;  his  grandfather  to  be 
73;  his  great-grandfather  to  be  86;  and  the  next  an 
cestor  back  to  be  72.  The  wives  of  these  stout  old 
gentlemen  lived  to  about  the  same  age;  so  that  the 
Secretary  has  a  sort  of  inherited  right  to  live  long. 

The  father  of  the  Secretary  was  a  thrifty  and  re 
spectable  Glastenbury  farmer,  and  gave  his  son  a  good 
education.  The  boy,  after  some  experience  in  the  dis 
trict  school,  was  sent  to  the  Episcopal  Academy  at 
Cheshire,  near  New  Haven,  and  afterward  to  Norwich 


160  THE   PICTURE   AND    THE   MEX. 

University,  Vermont,  which  was  first  established  as  a 
military  school,  in  1820,  by  Captain  Alden  Partridge, 
the  well-known  soldier  and  teacher.  For  some  reason 
or  other,  however,  young  Welles  did  not  graduate  there, 
but  returned  to  his  native  State  and  established  -him 
self  in  Hartford,  which  has  remained  his  residence  ever 
since,  except  at  the  two  periods  when  he  has  held  office 
in  Washington.  Here  he  studied  law  under  Chief- 
Justice  Williams  and  Judge  W.  W.  Ellsworth.  But  liis 
natural  inclination  was  much  stronger  toward  politics 
and  political  literature  than  toward  the  more  plodding 
legal  industry  of  the  courts ;  and  not  having  become 
very  deeply  immersed  in  the  practice  of  law,  he  found 
it  easy  and  agreeable,  in  1826,  to  become  a  proprietor 
and  the  editor  #f  the  Hartford  Times,  a  paper  which, 
whether  its  politics  have  been  right  or  wrong,  has  al 
ways  been  conducted  with  shrewdness,  energy,  and 
power,  and  is  so  still.  It  was  when  Mr.  Welles  became 
connected  with  it  the  recognized  organ  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  in  Connecticut,  and  it  is  an  influential 
organ  of  that  party  now. 

As  editor  of  the  Times,  or  as  a  principal  writer  for 
it,  Mr.  Welles  exerted  a  powerful  influence  in  the  poli 
tics  of  his  State,  and  to  some  extent  in  national  poli 
tics.  This  influence  was  in  great  measure  exerted  in 
consultation  with  Hon.  John  M.  Niles,  for  three  terms 
United  States  senator  from  Connecticut,  and  in  his  day 
the  leader  of  his  party  in  his  State.  So  complete  was 
his  control  over  the  Democracy  supposed  to  be,  that 
"  Xiles's  cattle'7  was  one  of  the  regular  sneers  almost 
every  day  cast  at  the  "  Locofocos"  by  their  Whig  ad 
versaries.  It  was  Mr.  Niles  who  was  foremost  in  es- 


WELLES.  161 

tablishing  the  Times,  in  1817,  and  until  Mr.  Welles 
took  his  place  he  was  principal  editor. 

Messrs.  Niles  and  Welles  were  both  devoted  parti 
sans  of  General  Jackson,  and  the  Times  was  the  first 
newspaper  that  urged  his  election  to  the  Presidency  of 
the  United  States ;  it  stuck  to  him  through  evil  and 
good  report  until  his  election  in  1828,  and  was  a  most 
thorough  and  effective  supporter  of  his  administration 
from  beginning  to  end. 

In  1827  Mr.  Welles  was  elected  to  the  State  Legisla 
ture,  and  was  re-elected  yearly  until  1835  ;  and  as  he 
resigned  his  editorial  chair  at  the  end  of  General  Jack 
son's  second  term,  his  chief  activity  as*a  State  legis- 
tor  and  politician  may  perhaps  be  placed  within  that 
period  of  eight  years.  During  this  time  he  was  a  most 
vigorous  adversary  to  a  scheme  then  proposed  to  pro 
hibit  from  giving  evidence  in  courts  persons  not  be 
lieving  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments  ; 
he  labored  perseveringly  to  abolish  imprisonment  for 
debt,  which  he  finally  succeeded  in  doing ;  he  advo 
cated  and  carried  the  enactment  of  general  laws  for 
the  establishment  of  business  corporations,  in  place  of 
the  previous  practice  of  legislating  specially  for  each 
new  company ;  and  in  the  days  when  a  silver  quarter  of 
a  dollar  was  the  postage  on  "  each  sheet  or  piece  of 
paper,"  and  long  before  the  public  at  large  were  think 
ing  about  it,  he  set  on  foot  an  important  agitation  for 
cheap  and  uniform  postage.  The  mere  statement  of 
these  "  heads  of  controversy"  shows  the  genuine  "  dem 
ocracy"  in  the  real,  not  the  partisan  political  sense  of 
the  word,  of  Mr.  Welles'  views. 

In  1835  Mr.  Welles  was  controller  of  public  ac- 
11 


162  THE   PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

counts  of  the  State ;  in  1836  he  was  made  postmaster 
at  Hartford,  and  retained  the  office  until  removed 
under  Harrison's  administration  in  1841  ;  in  1842  he 
was  controller  again  ^  and  in  1846,  President  Polk, 
without  any  previous  notice,  offered  him  an  appoint 
ment  as  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Provisions  and  Cloth 
ing  in  the  Navy  Department  at  Washington.  This 
office  he  accepted,  and  retained  until  1849. 

Mr.  Welles,  as  a  Democrat,  had  always  been  an  ad 
mirer  of  Jefferson,  and  in  accordance  with  the  views 
of  that  statesman,  he  was  unconditionally  opposed  to 
the  extension  of  slave  territory.  When,  therefore,  the 
annexation  of.  Texas,  the  Mexican  War,  the  contest 
over  Mr.  Clay's  compromise,  and  the  other  measures 
connected  with  these,  showed  that  the  Democratic 
party  was  ceasing  to  be  the  progressive  party  and  be 
coming  a  retrogressive  one — was  changing  from  the 
party  of  human  rights  into  a  machine  for  promoting 
slavery,  he  necessarily  felt  himself  repelled  from  it — a 
feeling,  by  the  way,  in  which  his  old  friend  Senator 
Niles  most  fully  sympathized.  Both  of  them,  although 
they  had  not  united  with  the  Liberty  party  nor  the 
Free-soil  party,  joined  heartily  in  the  organization  of 
the  Republican  party  in  1855;  Mr.  Welles  was  the 
candidate  of  the  new  party  for  Governor  of  Connecti 
cut  in  1856  ;  and  on  the  establishment  in  the  same  year 
of  the  Hartford  Evening  Press  as  the  organ  of  the  new 
party,  he  transferred  his  counsels  and  his  pen  to  the 
new  paper.  Pie  was  soon  appointed  a  member 'of  the 
Republican  National  Committee,  and  at  the  Chicago 
Convention  in  1860  which  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln,  Mr. 
Welles  was  chairman  of  the  Connecticut  delegation. 


WELLES.  1C3 

During  Mr.  Lincoln's  tour  in  the  East,  in  the  beginning 
of  I860,  Mr.  Welles  was  much  with  him;  and  doubt 
less  may  then  have  formed  such  an  opinion  of  his  Con 
necticut  companion  as  induced  the  subsequent  selection 
of  him  for  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  The  writer  of  the 
present  sketch  very  well  remembers  being  in  the  State 
Library  at  Hartford  one  day  when  Mr.  Welles  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  entered  together,  and  smiling  to  see  the  tall 
form  of  Mr.  Welles  so  effectually  out-topped  by  the 
lengthy  Illinoian.  It  was  not  then  generally  foreseen 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  President,  Mr.  Seward  being 
the  choice  more  usually  expected ;  and  yet  it  is  not 
improbable  that  the  experienced  campaigner  of  the 
times  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  may  already  have 
speculated,  in  his  own  peculiarly  silent  and  quiet  man 
ner,  upon  the  chances  of  Illinois  as  against  New  York. 
And  if  Illinois  were  to  be  the  nominating  State,  it  fol 
lowed  of  course  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  the  man. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  Mr.  Welles  was  appointed  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  and  was  retained  in  that  place  by  Mr. 
Lincoln's  successor.  His  administration  of  his  very  im 
portant  trust  has  been  often  assailed  for  a  variety  of 
reasons.  Whatever  the  occasion  or  the  violence  of  those 
attacks,  Mr.  Welles  has  answered  none  of  them.  This 
is  not  the  place  for  any  discussion  of  such  matters ;  but 
it  may  properly  be  remarked  that  the  United  States 
Navy  during  the  rebellion  was  of  gigantic  size  and 
importance,  far  beyond  comparison  with  its  condition 
at  any  previous  period ;  and  further,  that  its  growth,  ef 
ficiency,  economy,  and  good  management  under  Mr. 
Welles  will  bear  comparison  with  those  of  any  other 
department  of  the  Government  during  the  same  period. 


164  THE   PICTUEE   AND   THE   MEN. 

IX. 

EDWIN    M.    STANTON. 

MR,  STANTOX  was  the  youngest  man  of  President 
Lincoln's  cabinet,  having  been  born  at  Steubcnville, 
Ohio,  in  1815.  His  family,  like  those  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  Attorney-General  Bates,  was  of  Quaker  descent. 
His  parents  had  removed  to  Ohio  from  Culpepper 
County,  Virginia,  where  his  mother's  father  once 
owned  the  ground  on  which  was  fought  the  battle  of 
Cedar  Mountain,  August  9,  1862,  between  Banks  and 
Stonewall  Jackson.  After  an  ordinary  preparatory 
training,  he  entered  Kenyon  College  in  1833,  but  re 
mained  only  a  year  ;  after  that  time  he  became  a 
bookseller's  clerk  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  but  at  the  same 
time  studied  law  under  L.  D.  Collier,  Esq.,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1836.  He  began  practice  at 
Cadiz,  in  Harrison  County,  and  almost  immediately  at 
tracted  attention  as  a  lawyer  of  ability.  In  the  next 
year,  1837,  he  was  chosen  prosecuting  attorney  of  the 
county.  Soon  afterwards  he  established  himself  in 
Steubenville,  where  he  very  quickly  attained  an  exten 
sive  business.  In  1839  he  became  official  reporter  of 
the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  and  so  re 
mained  during  three  years.  By  this  time  Mr.  Stanton's 
reputation  was  very  high  throughout  all  southeast  Ohio 
and  the  neighboring  part  of  Virginia,  both  for  arguing 
questions  of  law  and  for  power  in  convincing  juries. 
AVhile  established  here,  he  went  to  Washington  to  de- 


ST  ANTON.  165 

• 

fend  C.  J.  McXulty,  of  Ohio,  clerk  of  the  House  of 
^Representatives,  on  trial  upon  a  charge  of  embezzle 
ment  in  office,  and  succeeded  in  securing  his  acquittal. 

While  thus  at  work  in  his  profession,  he  was  also  an 
energetic  and  efficient  politician,  laboring  vigorously  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Democratic  party.  In  1848,  as  his 
reputation  caused  him  to  be  employed  in  more  and 
more  important  causes,  he  removed  to  Pittsburg,  as  a 
better  center  of  operations,  and  remained  until  1857. 
Here  Mr.  Stanton  speedily  became  the  acknowledged 
leader  of  the  bar,  and  began  to  be  employed  in  many 
heavy  and  important  cases  before  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  at  Washington.  One  of  these,  the 
Wheeling  Bridge  case,  involved  the  same  important 
and  violently  and  repeatedly  contested  question  that 
lias  frequently  arisen  in  similar  cases,  whether  the  con 
venience  of  the  land  routes  or  of  the  water  routes  shall 
be  served,  when  a  bridge  is  wanted  over  a  navigable 
stream.  No  lawsuits  are  fought  with  more  energy, 
anger,  and  force  than  these.  This  fact  is  easy  to 
understand  when  it  is  considered  that  they  necessarily 
occur  between  parties  of  large  means,  and  of  that  pe 
culiar  obstinate,  powerful,  aggressive  executive  energy 
of  character  that  belongs  to  the  promoters  of  great  in 
dustrial  and  social  enterprises.  Mr.  Stanton's  vast  en 
dowment  of  exactly  those  qualities  rendered  him  a 
sympathetic  and  interested  lawyer  for  just  such  men  ; 
and  his  argument  in  the  Wheeling  case  is  perhaps  the 
best  known  of  all  his  legal  efforts. 

In  1857,  Mr.  Stanton  removed  again  from  Pittsburg 
to  the  still  larger  arena  of  Washington,  where  he 
quickly  entered  into  the  peculiar  and  lucrative  patent 


ICC  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

department  of  law  practice.  During  the  year  after  his 
removal  to  Washington,  he  was  selected  by  Attorney- 
General  Black  to  go  to  California  to  argue  for  the 
United  States  some  land  cases  involving  principles  and 
values  of  very  great  importance,  which  came  up  before 
the  California  State  courts. 

Late  in  the  year  1860,  after  the  secession  of  South 
Carolina,  great  difficulties  and  vexations  arose  within 
the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  from  the  operation  of  the 
existing  political  troubles,  and  from  the  clashing  views, 
purposes,  and  characters  of  the  members  of  the  Govern 
ment.  Hon.  Lewis  Cass,  then  Secretary  of  State,  un 
able  to  control  the  course  of  events  or  to  endure  the 
machinations  of  the  dishonest  officials  around  him,  re 
signed  his  place  on  the  14th  of  December,  and  Attorney- 
General  Black  was  appointed  in  his  stead.  Mr.  Stanton, 
well  known  hitherto  as  a  Democrat  in  politics,  and  as 
a  prompt,  energetic,  and  able  laAvyer,  was  appointed  to 
the  vacant  post  of  Attorney-General,  and  as  such  he 
bore  a  part  in  the  disturbed  and  uneasy  remainder  of 
Mr.  Buchanan's  administration.  The  -details  of  this 
portion  of  his  career  are  known  only  to  himself  and  his 
fellow-members  of  the  Cabinet.  But  he  took  a  strong 
and  determined  position  in  defence  of  the  United  States, 
and  of  the  dignities  and  rights  of  the  central  govern 
ment,  as  against  the  feeble  and  wailing  acquiescence  of 
Mr.  Buchanan,  and  one  or  two  of  the  Cabinet,  and 
against  the  monstrous  and  impudent  treasons  of  the 
rest  of  it.  In  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Carpenter,  Mr. 
Stanton  once  gave  the  following  brief  glimpse  into  that 
sufficiently  contemptible  interior: 

"  This  little  incident,"  said  Stanton,  speaking  of  Major 


8T  ANTON.  167 

Anderson's  removal  to  Fort  Sumter,  "  was  the  crisis  of 
our  history — the  pivot  upon  which  everything  turned. 
Had  he  remained  in  Fort  Moultrie,  a  very  different  com 
bination  of  circumstances  would  have  arisen.  The  at 
tack  on  Sumter — commenced  by  the  South — united  the 
North,  and  made  the  success  of  the  Confederacy  impossi 
ble.  I  shall  never  forget,"  he  continued,  "  our  coming 
together  by  special  summons  that  night.  Buchanan  sat 
in  his  arm-chair  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  white  as  a 
sheet,  with  the  stump  of  a  cigar  in  his  mouth.  The 
dispatches  were  laid  before  us ;  and  so  much  violence 
ensued,  that  he  had  to  turn  us  all  out-of-doors." 

Upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  accession,  Mr.  Cameron  was  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  War;  and  upon  his  resigning 
January  14,  1862,  to  accept  the  appointment  of  envoy 
extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  to  Russia, 
Mr.  Stanton  was  appointed  to  the  vacant  secretaryship 
on  the  20th  of  the  same  month.  It  was  with  a  just 
consciousness  of  his  powers  of  straightforward  hard 
work,  of  judicious  organization,  and  of  selecting  and 
controlling  men,  that  he  accepted  the  place,  yet  with 
no  vain-glory,  nor  with  any  idle  under-estimate  of  the 
problem  to  be  solved.  He  had  not  been  a  member  of 
the  Republican  party,  but  a  thorough  Jacksonian 
Democrat.  Still,  Mr.  Seward,  Mr.  Chase,  and  Mr. 
Cameron  himself  were  all  well  aware  of  the  remarkable 
energy,  fearlessness,  force  of  will,  and  unqualified  pa 
triotism  shown  in  his  position  in  the  Buchanan  Cabinet. 
They  knew  that  he,  with  Judge  Holt  and  General  Dix, 
had  substantially  preserved  the  Government ;  that  had 
it  not  been  for  those  three  men,  doubtless  the  whole 
frame  of  the  administration  would  have  been  knocked 


168  THE    PICTURE    AND   THE    MEN. 

out  of  the  trembling  and  feeble  hands  of  Mr.  Buchanan, 
to  be  broken  into  splinters,  or  to  be  grasped  and  con 
trolled  by  the  Southern  traitors  of  that  Cabinet.  When 
Mr.  Stanton  went  to  the  White  House  to  receive  his 
commission  from  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  President  and  he  had 
never  seen  each  other.  It  is  said  also  that  Mr.  Stanton 
had  no  notice  whatever  of  the  intended  appointment 
until  the  day  before  his  nomination  was  sent  to  the 
Senate,  the  information  being  given  to  him  just  as  he 
was  about  to  argue  a  cause  before  the  Supreme  Court. 
In  a  brief  article  on  Mr.  Stanton  which  appeared  some 
time  ago  in  Harper's  Weekly,  and  which  is  understood 
to  have  been  written  by  an  intimate  personal  and  po 
litical  friend,  the  writer  says :  "  The  relations  thus  com 
menced  between  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of 
War  always  remained  exceedingly  cordial,  or  rather, 
they,  constantly  became  warmer  and  more  confidential, 
down  to  the  last  fatal  day  which  ended  Mr.  Lincoln's 
earthly  career.  While  he  was  rarely  seen  at  the  offices 
of  the  other  executive  departments,  at  the  War  Office 
he  was  not  merely  a  frequent  but  a  constant  visitor. 
His  tall  form,  wrapped  in  his  familiar  gray  shawl,  was 
usually  to  be  seen  making  its  way  along  the  back  alley 
that  leads  there  from  the  White  House,  at  from  nine  to 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  or  about  four  in  the  afternoon ; 
and  persons  who  were  admitted  to  see  the  Secretary  on 
important  business  in  his  private  room  at  those  hours 
would  sometimes  find  the  President  stretched  upon  the 
sofa  there,  as  if  the  discussion  between  him  and  the 
Secretary  had  not  yet  been  concluded.  Indeed,  the  tie 
between  them  seemed  to  be  quite  as  much  that  of 
private  aifection  as  of  official  duty ;  and  when  the  catas- 


STAN  TON.  169 

trophe  occurred  which  robed  the  nation  in  mourning, 
all  will  remember  how  admirably  the  confidence  of  the 
deceased  statesman  in  his  friend  and  adviser  was  justi 
fied  by  the  latter.  For  a  brief  time,  in  that  awful 
crisis,  the  whole  government  seemed  to  rest  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  country  will 
not  soon  forget  the  manner  in  which  the  momentous 
trust  was  discharged." 

Mr.  Lincoln,  besides  proceeding  upon  the  recommen 
dations  of  the  other  secretaries,  chose  Mr.  Stanton  with 
a  wise  consideration  of  geography.  In  answering  some 
questions  on  the  subject,  he  observed  that  his  first  wish 
had  been  to  choose  a  man  from  a  border  State, -but 
that  he  knew  Xew  England  would  object;  that  on  the 
other  hand  he  would  have  also  been  glad  to  choose  a 
New  Englander,  but  he  knew  the  Border  States  would 
object.  So,  on  the  whole,  he  concluded  to  select  from 
some  intervening  territory ;  "  and  to  tell  you  the  truth, 
gentlemen,"  he  added,  "  I  don't  believe  Stanton  knows 
where  he  belongs  himself."  Some  of  the  company  now 
said  something  about  Mr.  Stanton's  impulsiveness,  to 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  with  one  of  those  queer  stories 
with  which  he  used  to  answer  friends  and  enemies  alike. 
"  Well,"  he  said,  "  we  may  have  to  treat  him  as  they 
are  sometimes  objjged  to  treat  a  Methodist  minister  I 
knowr  of  out  West.  He  gets  wrought  up  so  high  in 
his  prayers  and  exhortations  that  they  are  obliged  to 
put  bricks  in  his  pockets  to  keep  him  down.  We  may 
be  obliged  to  serve  Stanton  the  same  way,  but  I  guess 
we'll  let  him  jump  awhile  first!" 

An  interesting  anecdote  was  a  short  time  since  print 
ed  in  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  illustrating  well  the  com- 


170  THE    PICTURE   AND   THE   MEN. 

plcte  confidence  existing  between  the  President  and  Ids 
Secretary  of  War. 

"  While  the  President,"  says  this  account,  "  was  on 
his  way  back  from  Richmond,  and  at  a  point  where  no 
telegraph  could  reach  the  steamer  upon  which  lie  was, 
a  dispatch  of  the  utmost  importance  reached  Washing 
ton,  demanding  the  immediate  decision  of  the  President 
himself.  The  dispatch  was  received  by  a  confidential 
staff  officer,  who  at  once  ascertained  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
could  not  be  reached.  Delay  was  out  of  the  question, 
as  important  army  movements  were  involved.  The 
officer  having  the  dispatch  went  with  it  directly  to  Mr. 
Stanton's  office,  but  the  Secretary  could  not  be  found. 
Messengers  were  hastily  dispatched  for  him  in  all  direc 
tions.  Their  search  was  useless,  and  a  positive  answer 
had  been  already  too  much  delayed  by  the  time  it  had 
occupied.  With  great  reluctance  the  staff  officer  sent 
a  reply  in  the  President's  name.  Soon  after  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  entered  himself,  having  learned  of  the  efforts  made 
to  find  him.  The  dispatch  was  produced,  and  he  was 
informed  by  the  officer  sending  the  answer,  of  what  had 
been  done. 

"  '  Did  I  do  right  ?'  said  the  officer  to  the  Secretary. 

" '  Yes,  Major,'  replied  Mr.  Stanton,  *  I  think  you 
have  sent  the  correct  reply,  but  I  should  hardly  have 
dared  to  take  the  responsibility.' 

"  At  this  the  whole  magnitude  of  the  office,  and  the 
great  responsibility  lie  had  taken  upon  himself,  seemed 
to  fall  upon  the  officer,  and  almost  overcame  him,  and 
he  asked  Mr.  Stanton  what  he  had  better  do,  and  was 
advised  to  go  directly  to  the  President,  on  his  return, 
and  state  the  case  frankly  to  him.  It  was  a  sleepless 


ST  ANTON.  171 

night  for  this  officer,  and  at  the  very  earliest  hour  con 
sistent  with  propriety  he  went  to  the  White  House, 
Mr.  Lincoln  having  returned  late  the  night  before,  but 
was  refused  admission  by  the  usher,  who  told  him  that 
,  the  President  had  given  strict  orders  to  admit  no  one 
upon  any  pretense  till  after  a  certain  hour.  In  vain 
did  the  officer  urge  the  importance  of  his  errand ;  the 
usher  would  not  take  in  his  name,  and  he  was  about 
turning  away  when  the  President's  son  came  down 
stairs,  bade  the  officer  good-morning,  and,  on  hearing 
he  had  been  refused  admission,  said  that  his  father 
would  certainly  see  the  Major.  Still  the  usher  was  not 
to  be  moved,  till  the  son  went  back  himself,  and  re 
turned  with  the  message  that  the  President  would  see 
him. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  reclining  on  a  lounge  as  the  officer 
entered,  looking  over  a  pile  of  papers.  He  appeared 
a  little  annoyed  at  the  interruption,  but  stopped  at 
once  to  hear  his  visitor's  mission.  The  dispatch  was 
shown  him,  and  the  action  upon  it- stated  frankly  and 
briefly.  The  President  thought  a  moment  and  then 
said,  'Did  you  consult  the  Secretary  of  War,  Major?' 
The  absence  of  the  Secretary  at  the  important  moment 
was  then  related  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  the  subsequent 
remark  of  Mr.  Stanton  that  he  thought  the  right  answer 
had  been  given,  but  that  he  himself  would  have  shrunk 
from  the  responsibility. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  hearing  the  story,  rose,  crossed  the 
room,  and  taking  the  officer  by  the  hand  thanked  him 
cordially,  and  then  spoke  earnestly  of  Mr.  Stanton  as 
follows:  'Hereafter,  Major,  whenever  you  have  Mr. 
Stantorfs  sanction  in  any  matter,  you  have  mine,  for 


172  THE  PICTURE* AND  THE  MEN. 

so  great  is  my  confidence  in  his  judgment  and  patriot 
ism,  that  I  never  icish  to  take  an  important  step  my 
self  without  first  consulting  him?  " 

The  story  of  life  within  the  Cabinet  during  the  war 
is  varied  with  all  manner  of  friendly  and  unfriendly 
colorings ;  but  on  the  whole  it  is  a  fine  picture  of 
strong  and  decided  men  striving  to  do  their  best  for 
the  country,  and  to  postpone  or  reconcile  personal  ob 
jects  and  sentiments  so  far  as  they  interfered  with  the 
common  object.  Very  many  of  its  inside  occurrences 
have  all  the  hearty  friendliness  of  events  in  a  family 
of  grown-up,  positive,  but  kindly  brothers.  Mr.  Car 
penter  tells  a  graphic  anecdote  of  the  strong  regard  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  for  Secretary  Stanton.  "  A  few  days  be 
fore  the  President's  death,"  he  says,  "  Secretary  Stan- 
ton  tendered  his  resignation  of  the  War  Department. 
He  accompanied  the  act  with  a  heart-felt  tribute  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  constant  friendship  and  faithful  devotion  to 
the  country  ;  saying,  also,  that  he  as  Secretary  had  ac 
cepted  the  position- to  hold  it  only  until  the  war  should 
end,  and  that  now  he  felt  his  work  was  done,  and  his 
duty  was  to  resign. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  greatly  moved  by  the  Secretary's 
words,  and  tearing  in  pieces  the  paper  containing  the 
resignation,  and  throwing  his  arms  about  the  Secretary, 
he  said  :  '  Stanton,  you  have  been  a  good  friend  and  a 
faithful  public  servant,  and  it  is  not  for  you  to  say 
when  you  will  no  longer  be  needed  here.'  Several 
friends  of  both  parties  were  present  on  the  occasion, 
and  there  was  not  a  dry  eye  that  witnessed  the  scene." 

At  the  Cabinet  meeting  which  Mr.  Carpenter  once 
attended,  Mr.  Usher,  then  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 


STANTON.  173 

told  Mr.  Stanton  that  he  had  a  young  friend  whom  he 
wished  to  have  appointed  a  paymaster  in  the  army. 
"  How  old  is  he  ?"  asked  Mr.  Stanton,  gruffly.  "  About 
twenty-one,  I  believe,"  answered  Mr.  Usher;  "he  is  of 
good  family  and  excellent  character.  "Usher,"  ex 
claimed  Mr.  Stanton,  in  reply,  "  I  would  not  appoint  the 
Angel  Gabriel  a  paymaster  if  he  was  only  twenty-one." 

A  good  instance  of  the  kind  of  influence  which  Mr. 
Stanton  exerted  upon  the  war,  and  of  the  way  he  used 
it,  is  given  in  the  account  of  a  correspondent  of  the 
Boston  Commonwealth,  of  the  occasion  when  negotia 
tion  upon  political  matters  was  forbidden  to  General 
Grant.  It  wTas  at  the  capital,  on  the  night  of  March 
3d,  1865,  and  while  the  last  bills  from  Congress  were 
being  read  and  signed,  and  the  accounts  from  Grant  of 
the  certain  speedy  destruction  of  Lee's  army  were  be 
ing  discussed,  that,  the  story  says,  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
elated,  and  the  kindness  of  his  heart  was  manifest  in 
intimations  of  favorable  terms  to  be  granted  to  the 
conquered  rebels. 

"  Stanton  listened  in  silence,  restraining  his  emotion, 
but  at  length  the  tide  burst  forth.  '  Mr.  President,' 
said  he,  *  to-morrow  is  inauguration  day.  If  you  are 
not  to  be  the  President  of  an  obedient  and  united  peo 
ple,  you  had  better  not  be  inaugurated.  Your  work  is 
already  done,  if  any  other  authority  than  yours  is  for 
one  moment  to  be  recognized,  or  any  terms  made  that 
do  not  signify  you  are  the  supreme  head  of  the  nation. 
If  generals  in  the  field  are  to  negotiate  peace,  or  any 
other  chief  magistrate  is  to  be  acknowledged  on  this 
continent,  then  you  are  not  needed,  and  you  had  better 
not  take  the  oath  of  office.' 


174:  THE    PICTURE   AND    THE   MEN. 

"  *  Stanton,  you  are  right !'  said  the  President,  his 
whole  tone  changing.  '  Let  me  have  a  pen.' 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  down  at  the  table,  and  wrote  as 
follows : 

" '  The  President  directs  me  to  say  to  you  that  he 
wishes  you  to  have  no  conference  with  General  Lee, 
unless  it  be  for  the  capitulation  of  Lee's  army,  or  on 
some  minor  or  purely  military  matter.  He  instructs 
me  to  say  that  you  are  not  to  decide,  discuss,  or  confer 
upon  any  political  question.  Such  questions  the  Presi 
dent  holds  in  his  own  hands,  and  will  submit  them  to 
no  military  conferences  or  conventions.  In  the  mean 
time  you  are  to  press  to  the  utmost  your  military  ad 
vantages.' 

"  The  President  read  over  what  he  had  written,  and 
then  said : 

"  *  Now,  Stanton,  date  and  sign  this  paper,  and  send 
it  to  Grant.  We'll  see  about  this  peace  business.' 

"  The  duty  wras  discharged  only  too  gladly  by  the 
energetic  and  far-sighted  Secretary ;  with  what  effect 
and  renown  the  country  knows  full  well." 

Mr.  Stanton's  official  doings  as  Secretary  of  War 
have  been  very  often  and  very  violently  attacked,  and 
charges  of  every  sort,  from  oppression,  cruelty,  and 
official  brutality  to  the  grossest  and  vilest  malfeas 
ance  and  corruption,  have  been  made  against  him. 
None  of  these,  however,  have  ever  lived  long  enough  to 
produce  an  impression  upon  the  public,  and  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  himself  has  treated  them  with  utter  neglect.  This 
disregard  of  cotemporary  personal  reputation  was  a 
habit  of  his  before  he  became  Secretary ;  for  he  never 
took  pains  to  preserve  any  of  his  legal  productions,  and 


STANTON.  175 

the  personal  friend  who  prepared  the  sketch  of  Mr. 
Stanton,  above  quoted  from,  says :  "  In  one  of  these 
cases,  which  related  to  the  right  of  the  Suspension 
Bridge  Company,  at  Wheeling,  to  construct  their 
bridge  across  the  Ohio  River,  his  plea  is  spoken  of  by 
those  who  had  the  luck  to  hear  it  as  a  most  remarkable 
performance,  but  we  have  not  succeeded  in  procuring  a 
printed  copy  of  it." 

We  quote  from  the  same  paper  its  very  well-outlin 
ed  sketch  of  Mr.  Stanton's  personal  appearance  : 

"  Mr.  Stanton  is  about  five  feet  eight  inches  in  height, 
and  is  a  person  of  broad  shoulders  and  heavy  frame. 
His  features  are  rather  round  and  full,  his  hair  very 
dark,  though  thin,  and  his  complexion  sallow.  These 
peculiarities,  combined  with  his  intense  and  penetrating 
dark  brown  eyes,  and  his  heavy  beard  sprinkled  freely 
with  gray,  give  somewhat  of  an  Oriental  air  to  his 
general  appearance.  Though  his  ordinary  expression 
is  thoughtful,  absorbed,  and  stern,  his  smile  is  gentle 
and  winning  as  a  woman's." 

In  an  enthusiastic  account  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
printed  some  time  ago  in  the  Illinois  State  Journal,  is 
given  the  following  picture  of  his  character  as  a  busi 
ness  man  :  "  His  mind  never  ceases  to  act,  and  his  body 
is  never  fatigued  with  executing.  The  former  never 
rests,  and  the  latter  never  bends  beneath  its  work.  The 
writer,  when  a  boy,  used  to  study  in  a  room  under  his 
office,  and  knows  that  he  was  accustomed  to  work  all 
day  and  until  the  small  hours  of  the  night  began  their 
increase.  His  industry  would  astonish  ordinary  men, 
and  the  amount  of  work  which  he  did  could  never  have 
been  endured  by  other  than  a  man  of  iron.  When  im- 


176  THE   PICTUKE   AND   THE   MEN. 

mcrsed  in  business  and  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of 
details  he  seemed  at  home — confusion  under  his  energy 
soon  became  system.  He  seemed  always  posted  in  his 
business,  he  never  took  up  a  wrong  paper,  turned  to  a 
wrong  page,  or  read  a  wrong  extract.  His  memory 
never  deserted  him,  and  his  judgment  never  erred." 

Mr.  Stanton  has  been  twice  married,  his  present  wife 
having  been  a  Miss  Ellen  Dickinson  of  Pittsburg.  By 
his  first  marriage  he  has  a  son,  now  about  twenty-five 
years  of  age ;  and  by  his  second,  a  son  and  two  daugh 
ters,  all  yet  quite  young. 


177 


X. 
EDWARD    BATES. 

JUDGE  BATES  was  born  in  Goochland  County,  Vir 
ginia — a  county  in  the  heart  of  the  State,  on  the  north 
bank  of  James  River,  and  next  above  Henrico,  in  which 
stands  the  city  of  Richmond — in  1793.  His  family  had 
been  Quakers,  but  his  father,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
sect,  had  been  cast  out  of  it  for  bearing  arms  during  the 
Revolution.  The  education  of  the  boy  was  conducted 
under  the  supervision  of  a  relative  of  much  culture ;  and 
about  1814  he  removed  to  Missouri  in  company  with 
his  elder  brother,  Frederick,  appointed  Secretary  of  the 
Territory  under  the  well-known  Western  explorer  Gov 
ernor  "William  Clark,  and  afterward  in  1824  himself 
elected  Governor  of  the  State.  St.  Louis,  where  the 
young  man  established  himself,  was  then  a  town  of  less 
than  5,000  inhabitants,  and  the  whole  Territory  num 
bered  not  more  than  about  50,000  souls. 

Mr.  Bates  very  soon  became  eminent  as  a  lawyer 
possessing  excellent  judgment,  ample  knowledge,  and 
much  power  of  calm  and  deliberate  argument.  When, 
on  July  19,  1820,  the  convention  to  frame  a  State  con 
stitution  met  at  St.  Louis,  Mr.  Bates  was  an  influential 
member  of  it,  and  was  for  a  long  time  a  leading  mem 
ber  of  the  Territorial  and  afterward  of  the  State  Leg 
islature.  During  the  Twentieth  Congress,  1827-9,  he 
served  as  a  representative  in  Congress  from  Missouri. 

12 


178  THE   PICTURE    AND   THE   MEN. 

Mr.  Bates  found  political  life  well  suited  to  his  tastes 
and  acquirements,  but  the  state  of  his  private  fortune 
did  not  allow  him  to  pursue  such  a  career,  and  accord 
ingly  at  the  end  of  his  Congressional  term  he  went 
quietly  home  to  his  law  practice  in  St.  Louis.  Here  he 
labored  faithfully  and  obscurely,  well  known  within  his 
own  State,  but  very  little  out  of  it,  until  the  Internal 
Improvement  Convention  of  1 847,  which  met  at  Chicago. 
To  this  assembly  Mr.  Bates  was  a  delegate,  and  here 
he  astonished  the  Convention  by  delivering  a  speech 
upon  the  question  before  them,  so  powerful,  eloquent, 
and  conclusive,  as  to  fill  his  audience  with  surprise  and 
delight.  An  attempt  was  quickly  made  to  enlist  so 
much  ability  in  the  service  of  the  Whig  party ;  but 
Mr.  Bates  persistently  declined  either  to  accept  any 
State  office,  or  to  take  the  Secretaryship  which  Presi 
dent  Fillmore  offered  him. 

On  questions  of  national  policy  Mr.  Bates  was  a  fol 
lower  of  Henry  Clay.  On  the  subject  of  slavery  he 
had  excellent  opportunities  for  forming  his  opinions,  as 
the  admission  of  his  State  to  the  Union  was  the  occa 
sion  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  debates  attend 
ing  that  measure  had  powerfully  discussed  the  subject, 
and  it  had  naturally  been  considered  and  argued  fully 
within  the  State  whose  existence  as  a  State  was  brought 
into  question.  Mr.  Bates  was  by  natural  constitution  of 
mind  a  conservative,  but  he  was  also  a  fearless  and  just 
man.  While  he  was  far  from  holding  the  views  of  the 
political  abolitionists,  he  was  still  decidedly  an  emanci 
pationist  of  the  school  of  Henry  Clay  ;  and  he  exempli 
fied  his  beliefs  on  the  subject  by  manumitting  his  own 
slaves.  When  the  question  of  the  repeal  of  the  Mis- 


BATES.  179 

souri  Compromise  came  up,  he  was  energetic  and  thor 
ough  in  his  opposition  to  it ;  and  from  that  time  for 
ward  he  labored  for  the  party  of  freedom  in  Missouri, 
taking  the  ground  that  free  labor  was  right  in  itself, 
and  was  far  more  profitable  to  the  State.  He  was  also 
a  firm  opponent  of  the  whole  series  of  measures  pursued 
by  Mr.  Buchanan's  administration  toward  the  infant 
State  of  Kansas. 

At  the  Chicago  Convention  to  nominate  a  Republican 
candidate  for  the  Presidency,  in  1860,  Mr.  Bates  was 
the  favorite  candidate  of  many  members,  both  from 
the  West  and  East.  Upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  election,  Mr. 
Bates'  appointment  to  the  place  of  Attorney-General 
was  the  very  first  of  the  Cabinet  appointments  defi 
nitely  determined  upon.  His  course  while  a  Cabinet 
officer  was  marked  by  entire  personal  good  feeling 
toward  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  by  a  steady  and  cautious  offi 
cial  conservatism ;  while  his  earnest  and  resolute  Union 
ism  was  never  doubted  nor  questioned.  After  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  re-election,  Mr.  Bates  resigned  his  post,  as  he  had 
once  before  retired  from  political  life,  for  reasons  per 
sonal  to  himself,  and  not  in  accordance  with  any  desire 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's,  and  once  more  returned  to  his  home 
at  St.  Louis,  where  he  has  since  remained  in  private 
life. 


ISO  THE   riCTUKE   AND   THE  HEN. 


XL 
MONTGOMERY   BLAIR. 

POSTMASTER-GENERAL  MONTGOMERY  BLAIR  is  ill  the 

third  generation  of  his  family  who  have  been  prominent 
in  political  life.  About  the  year  1800,  in  the  days  of 
the  violent  political  warfare  between  the  Federalists 
and  the  Republicans,  and  when  Kentucky  was  still 
harassed  along  her  borders  by  the  Indians,  whose  war 
fare  had  given  it  the  name  of  "The  Dark  and  Bloody 
Ground,"  James  Blair,  a  Virginian  of  Scotch  descent, 
was  living  at  Abingdon,  Washington  County,  Vir 
ginia,  a  small  town  in  the  southwestern  comer  of  that 
State,  on  the  head  waters  of  the  Holston  River,  and  in 
the  district  so  well  known  during  the  war  for  the 
Union,  as  the  scene  of  one  of  those  adventurous  and 
damaging  cavalry  raids  which  struck  so  sharply  and 
deeply  into  the  heart  of  the  rebellion.  Mr.  Blair  re 
moved  to  Kentucky,  taking  with  him  a  son,  Francis 
Preston  Blair,  then  about  ten  years  old.  Mr.  James 
Blair  became  an  influential  politician,  and  was  at  one 
time  attorney-general  of  Kentucky. 

Francis  P.  Blair,  the  son,  was  educated  at  Transyl 
vania  University,  and  was  a  partisan  of  Henry  Clay  in 
1824,  but  soon  afterward  became  an  advocate  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  views. 

In  the  winter  of  1830-1,  President  Jackson  discov 
ered  that  the  leading  party  "organ,"  the  Telegraph, 


BLAIR.  181 

though  still  professedly  his  advocate,  was  about  to  go 
over  to  the  side  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  was  then  just  ap 
pearing  in  Congress  as  the  leader  of  the  nullification 
scheme.  During  the  previous  summer,  a  gentleman 
had  casually  shown  the  President  an  article  in  the 
Frankfort  Argus,  a  Kentucky  paper,  containing  a 
strong  review  of  a  late  nullification  speech  in  Congress. 
The  President,  much  pleased  with  the  power  of  the 
article,  had  inquired  who  wrote  it,  and  was  told,  Mr. 
Francis  P.  Blair.  When,  therefore,  he  found  out  the 
proposed  desertion  of  his  allies  of  the  Telegraph,  he 
caused  a  proposition  to  be  made  to  the  Kentuckian,  to 
come  and  establish  a  Jackson  paper  in  Washington. 
Mr.  Blair,  holding  a  well-paid  position  as  elerk  of  the 
Kentucky  Circuit  Court,  being  also  the  president  of  the 
Commonwealth  Bank  with  a  salary,  and  owning  also  a 
good  plantation,  had  supposed  himself  permanently 
established,  and  was  entirely  taken  by  surprise  by  this 
application.  Being,  however,  an  ardent  friend  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  policy,  he  very  soon  gave  up  his  Ken 
tucky  interests,  came  to  Washington,  and  established 
that  famous  newspaper  the  Globe.  John  C.  Rives 
was  soon  afterward  associated  with  him  in  the  manage 
ment  of  the  new  paper;  and  the  important  part  which 
it  played  under  their  management  in  the  disturbed  and 
violent  political  contests  of  thirty  years  ago  is  matter 
of  history.  The  Congressional  Globe,  a  sort  of  suc 
cessor  of  the  Globe,  is  still  regularly  issued  at  Wash 
ington;  and  the  important  though  unobtrusive  influ 
ence  exerted  by  Mr.  Blair  both  in  those  days  and  even 
down  to  the  period  of  the  rebellion,  as  a  shrewd  and 
trusted  adviser  of  the  managers  of  the  Democratic 


182  THE    PICTURE   AND   TUB   MEN. 

party,  is  perhaps  as  well  known  as  the  fame  of  the 
newspaper  which  he  edited. 

Mr.  Blair  controlled  the  Globe  until  Mr.  Polk  became 
President,  when  Mr.  Ritchie  was  put  in  his  place.  On 
being  afterward  urged  to  resume  the  place,  he  declined ; 
he  also  declined  an  offer  of  the  mission  to  Spain,  and 
an  offer  of  some  other  diplomatic  appointment  for  his 
son,  and  took  up  his  abode  at  a  country  seat  called 
Silver  Spring,  in  Maryland,  where  he  has  resided  ever 
since,  busying  himself  with  farming  when  not  employed 
in  politics.  Mr.  Blair  supported  the  Van  Buren  or 
Free-soil  Democratic  movement  in  1848,  and  the  Fre 
mont  movement  in  1856. 

Montgomery  Blair,  son  of  the  editor  of  the  Globe, 
was  born  in  Kentucky,  May  10,  1813.  He  studied  at 
West  Point,  where  he  graduated  at  the  age  of  22,  and 
being  according  to  custom  commissioned  as  second 
lieutenant,  he  served  in  the  Seminole  war.  After 
about  a  year's  soldiering,  however,  he  resigned,  and 
settled  at  St.  Louis,  as  a  lawyer,  in  1837.  Here  he 
was  prosperous  in  law  and  in  politics,  holding  at  vari 
ous  times,  during  the  period  from  1839  to  1849,  the 
offices  of  United  States  District  Attorney,  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  Mayor  of  the  city.  In 
1852  Mr.  Blair  removed  to  Maryland,  where  he  estab 
lished  himself  in  his  father's  neighborhood,  in  a  house 
called  Montgomery  Castle. 

Mr.  Blair,  like  his  father,  was  a  Jacksonian  Demo 
crat;  but  when  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed 
he  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Republican  party.  Upon 
this,  President  Buchanan  promptly  removed  him  from 
the  solicitorship  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  a  post  given 


BLAIR.  183 

him  by  Mr.  Pierce.  Mr.  Blair,  like  his  father  and 
brother,  is  a  thorough  politician,  and  also  like  them  is 
a  man  of  strong  and  unconditional  likes  and  dislikes, 
and  prompt  and  decided  in  action.  Moreover,  the 
father  and  the  two  sons  very  naturally  and  properly 
co-operated  with  each  other  in  advice,  influence,  and 
management.  Accordingly,  they  were  all  more  or  less 
interested  in  the  appointment  of  General  Fremont  to 
Missouri,  and  afterward  in  his  removal.  Mr.  Mont 
gomery  Blair  and  his  brother  F.  P.  Blair  had  both 
been  active  and  influential  St.  Louis  politicians  also, 
and  thus  they  were  pretty  intimately  mixed  up  with 
the  peculiarly  turbulent  and  passionate  politics  of  Mis 
souri  and  Kansas  during  the  war.  These  experiences 
necessarily  procured  them  enemies,  and  these  enemies 
worked  hard  to  procure  Mr.  Blair's  ejection  from  the 
postmastership.  So  much  hostile  feeling  at  last  grew 
up  within  the  Republican  party  on  the  subject,  that  Mr. 
Blair,  with  correct  and  manly  feeling,  requested  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  tell  him  when  to  resign,  and  he  would  do  so. 
The  President  accordingly  requested  it,  September  23, 
1864,  and  the  resignation  was  offered  and  accepted  ac 
cordingly.  The  correspondence  is  so  creditable  to  both 
parties,  and  so  brief,  that  we  give  it  in  full : 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Septembor  23, 1864. 
HON.  MONTGOMERY  BLAIR  : 

My  Dear  Sir : — You  have  generously  said  to  me,  more  than 
once,  that  whenever  your  resignation  could  be  a  relief  to  me, 
it  was  at  my  disposal.  The  time  has  come.  You  very  well 
know  that  this  proceeds  from  no  dissatisfaction  of  mine  with  you 
personally  or  officially.  Your  uniform  kindness  has  been  un 
surpassed  by  that  of  any  other  friend,  and  while  it  is  true  that 
the  war  does  not  so  greatly  add  to  the  difficulties  of  your  de- 


184  THE    PICTURE   AND    THE   MEN. 

partinent  as  to  those  of  some  others,  it  is  yet  much  to  say,  as  I 
most  truly  can,  that  in  the  three  years  and  a  half  during  which 
you  have  administered  the  General  Post-Office,  I  remember  no 
single  complaint  against  you  in  connection  therewith. 

Yours,  as  ever,  A.  LINCOLN. 

MR.  BLAIR'S  REPLY. 

My  Dear  Sir  : — I  have  received  your  note  of  this  date,  refer 
ring  to  my  offers  to  resign  whenever  you  should  deem  it  ad 
visable  for  the  public  interest  that  I  should  do  so,  and-  stating 
that,  in  your  judgment,  that  time  has  now  come.  I  now,  there 
fore,  formally  tender  my  resignation  of  the  office  of  Postmas 
ter-General.  I  can  not  take  leave  of  you  without  renewing  the 
expressions  of  my  gratitude  for  the  uniform  kindness  which 
has  marked  your  course  toward, 

Yours  truly,  M.  BLAIR. 

THE  PRESIDENT. 

The  four  years'  term  of  office  thus  filled  by  Mr.  Blair 
was  by  the  nature  of  his  occupation  far  less  calculated 
to  keep  him  prominently  before  the  public,  than  the 
Secretaryships  of  War,  of  the  Navy,  and  of  the  Treas 
ury.  In  them  success  draws  attention,  but  the  better 
the  Post-Office  Department  is  managed  the  less  will  be 
said  about  it.  This  Department  was  conducted  witli 
decided  ability  by  Mr.  Blair,  and  the  fewness  of  com 
plaints  against  his  administration  of  it  is  equivalent  td 
high  positive  praise. 


APPENDIX. 


PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCIPATION. 

I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  thereof,  do  hereby 
proclaim  and  declare  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will 
be  prosecuted  for  the  object  of  practically  restoring  the  con 
stitutional  relation  between  the  United  States  and  the  people 
thereof  in  those  States  in  which  that  relation  is,  or  may  be, 
suspended  or  disturbed ;  that  it  is  my  purpose  upon  the  next 
meeting  of  Congress  to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a 
practical  measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  accept 
ance  or  rejection  of  all  the  Slave  States,  so-called,  the  people 
whereof  may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  and  which  States  may  then  have  voluntarily  adopted,  or 
thereafter  may  voluntarily  adopt,  the  immediate  or  gradual 
abolishment  of  Slavery  within  their  respective  limits,  and  that 
the  effort  to  colonize  persons  of  African  descent,  with  their  con 
sent,  upon  the  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the  previously 
obtained  consent  of  the  government  existing  there,  will  be 
continued ;  that  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons 
held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  any  designated  part  of  a 
State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States,  SHALL  BE  THEN,  THENCEFORWARD,  AND  FOR 
EVER  FREE  ;  and  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof  will 
recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will 
do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in 


186  APPENDIX. 

any  efforts  they  may  make  for.  actual  freedom ;  that  the  Ex 
ecutive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January  aforesaid,  by  procla 
mation,  designate  the  States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in 
which  the  people  thereof  respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States ;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the 
people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented 
in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  members  chosen 
thereto,  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters 
of  such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of 
strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  State  and  the  people  thereof  have  not  been  in  rebel 
lion  against  the  United  States. 

That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Congress  en 
titled,  "  An  act  to  make  an  additional  article  of  war,"  approved 
March  13,  1802,  and  which  act  is  in  the  words  and  figures  fol 
lowing  : 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  tJie  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  in  Congress,  assembled,  That  here 
after  the  following  shall  be  promulgated  as  an  additional  article 
of  war  for  the  government  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States, 
and  shall  be  observed  and  obeyed  as  such  : 

"  ARTICLE  — ••.  All  officers  or  persons  of  the  military  or  naval 
service  of  the  United  States  are  prohibited  from  employing  any 
of  the  forces  under  their  respective  commands  for  the  purpose 
of  returning  fugitives  from  service  or  labor  who  may  have 
escaped  from  any  persons  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  is 
claimed  to  be  due,  and  any  officer  who  shall  be  found  guilty  by 
a  court-martial  of  violating  this  article,  shall  be  dismissed  from 
the  service. 

"  SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  this  act  shall  take 
effect  from  and  after  its  passage." 

Also  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  entitled,  "  An 
act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish  treason  and  rebellion,  to 
seize  and  confiscate  property  of  Rebels,  and  for  other  purposes," 
approved  July  17,  1862,  and  which  sections  are  in  the  words 
and  figures  following : 

"  SEC.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  all  slaves  of  persons 
who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion  against  the  Govern- 


APPENDIX.  187 

ment  of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or 
comfort  thereto,  escaping  from  such  persons  and  taking  refuge 
\vithin  the  lines  of  the  army ;  and  all  slaves  captured  from  such 
pei-sons  or  deserted  by  them,  and  coming  under  the  control  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  all  slaves  of  such 
persons  found  on  (or  being  within)  any  place  occupied  by  Rebel 
forces  and  afterward  occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United 
States,  shall  be  deemed  captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever 
free  of  their  servitude  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

"  SEC.  10.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  no  slave  escaping 
into  any  State,  Territory,  or  the  District  of  Columbia,  from  any 
of  the  States,  shall  be  delivered  up,  or  in  any  way  impeded  or 
hindered  of  his  liberty,  except  for  crime,  or  some  offense  against 
the  laws,  unless  the  person  claiming  said  fugitive  shall  first 
make  oath  that  the  person  to  whom  the  labor  or  sendee  of  such 
fugitive  is  alleged  to  be  due,  is  his  lawful  owner,  and  has  not 
been  in  arms  against  the  United  States  in  the  present  rebellion, 
nor  in  any  way  given  aid  or  comfort  thereto ;  and  no  person 
engaged  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States 
shall,  under  any  pretense  whatever,  assume  to  decide  on  the 
validity  of  the  claim  of  any  person  to  the  service  or  labor  of 
any  other  person,  or  surrender  up  any  such  person  to  the  claim 
ant,  on  pain  of  being  dismissed  from  the  service." 

And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon,  and  order  all  persons  engaged 
in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United  States  to  ob 
serve,  obey,  and  enforce  within  their  respective  spheres  of  serv 
ice  the  act  and  sections  above  recited. 

And  the  Executive  will,  in  due  time,  recommend  that  all  citi 
zens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have  remained  loyal  thereto 
throughout  the  rebellion,  shall  (upon*  the  restoration  of  the 
constitutional  relation  between  the  United  States  and  their  re 
spective  States  and  people,  if  the  relation  shall  have  been  sus 
pended  or  disturbed)  be  compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  twenty-second  day  of 
September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 


188  APPENDIX. 

and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 
the  eighty-seventh. 

By  the  President :  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

WM.  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  PROCLAMATION. 

WHEREAS,  On  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  a 
proclamation  was  issued  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
containing  among  Qther  things,  the  following,  to  wit : 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as 
slaves  w'ithin  any  State,  or  any  designated  part  of  a  State,  the 
people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  shall  be  thenceforward  and  forever  free,  and  the  Execu 
tive  Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  military 
and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the 
freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress 
such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for 
their  actual  freedom : 

That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January  afore 
said,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts  of  States, 
if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof  respectively  shall  then  be 
in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  and  the  fact  that  any 
State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith 
represented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  members 
chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified 
voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence 
of  strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evi 
dence  that  such  State  and  the  people  thereof  are  not  then  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States  : 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as  Commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  in  time  of 


APPENDIX.  189 

actual  armed  rebellion  against  the  authority  and  Government 
of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for 
repressing  §aid  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  pro 
claimed  for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days  from  the  day 
of  the  first  above-mentioned  order,  and  designate,  as  the  States 
and  parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively  are 
this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the  following, 
to  wit :  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana,  except  the  parishes  of  St. 
Bernard,  Plaquemine,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James, 
Ascension,  Assumption,  Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St. 
Martin,  and  Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  Mis 
sissippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North 
Carolina,  and  Virginia,  except  the  forty-eight  counties  desig 
nated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  %  the  counties  of  Berkeley, 
Accomac,  Northampton,  Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess  Ann, 
and  Norfolk,  including  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth, 
and  which  excepted  parts  are,  for  the  present,  left  precisely  as 
if  this  proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  I 
do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  said 
designated  States  and  parts  of  States  are,  and  henceforward 
shall  be  free ;  and  that  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United 
States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will 
recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to  be  free, 
to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary  self-defense, 
and  I  recommend  to  them,  that  in  all  cases,  when  allowed,  they 
labor  faithfully  for  reasonable  wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such  persons  of 
suitable  condition  will  be  received  into  the  armed  service  of  the 
United  States  to  garrison  forts,  positions,  stations,  and  other 
places,  and  to  man  vessels  of  all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice, 
warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  military  necessity,  I  in 
voke  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind  and  the  gracious 
favor  of  Almighty  God. 


100  APPENDIX. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
[L.  s.]      eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  Indepen 
dence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  the  eighty- 
seventh. 

By  the  President :  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

WILLIAM  U.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

THE  STANDARD  PORTRAIT  NOW  READY. 

PAINTED  FROM  LIFE,   AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  IN  1864, 

BY  F.  B.  CARPENTER. 

~ln<l  magnificently  reproduced  on  Steel,  in  Line  and  Stipple, 
BY  F.  HALPIN. 

SIZE    OP    SHEET,    24    BY    30    INCHES. 

For  six  months  MR.  CARPENTER  was  an  inmate  of  the  "WHITE  HOUSE,  study 
ing  the  countenance  and  character  of  President  Lincoln.  His  great  painting, 

"The  First  Reading  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation," 

engraved  upon  Steel  by  A.  H.  RITCHIE,  of  which  engraving  thousands  have 
been  sold,  with  an  increased  demand  since  the  reduction  in  price  bvthe  un- 
dersigned  ;  and  his  book,  "  SIX  MONTHS  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE,"  at 
test  the  closeness  of  his  intercourse  with  Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  fidelity  of  his 
study.  Carpenters  "  Lincoln"  must  soon  become  a  household  word.  It  is 

THE  FAVORITE  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  LINCOLN  FAMILY. 
The  following  distinguished  persons  were  painted  from  life  by  Mr.  Carpen 
ter  :  Millard  Fillmore,  Franklin  Pierce,  John  Tyler,  Wm.  L.  Marcy,  Wm. 
H.  Seward,  Lewis  Cass,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Sam  Houston,  Edwin  M.  Stanton, 
Gideon  Welles,  Schuyler  Colfax,  Edward  Bates,  Caleb  Gushing,  Montgomery 
Blair,  John  C.  Fremont.  Horace  Greeley,  Gov.  Myron  H.  Clark.  Judge  Stephen 
J.  Freld,  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Rev.  Drs.  Cox,  Field, 
Storrs,  Bacon,  Bushnell,  John  Pierpout,  and  many  others. 

From  the  Publisher  of  the  '•'•New  York  Tribune." 

I  well  remember  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  sitting  to  you,  at  which  I 
was  present.  *  *  *  Mr.  Lincoln  then  made  this  remark  :  '•  I  feel  that 
there  is  more  of  me  in  this  portrait  than  in  any  representation  which  has 
ever  been  made."  I  think  these  were  his  very  words. 

Truly  yours,  SAMUEL  SINCLAIR. 

From  MRS.  LINCOLN. 

F.  B.  CARPENTER  :  My  Dear  Sir—  *  *  *  I  write  you  to-day  to  thank  you 
for  the  most  perfect  likeness  of  my  beloved  husband  that  I  have  ever  seen. 
The  resemblance  is  so  accurate  in  Mr.  Halpin's  engraving  that  it  will  require 
far  more  calmness  than  I  can  now  command  to  have  it  placed  continually  be 
fore  me.  *  *  *  Very  truly  your  friend,  'MARY  LINCOLN. 

From  MR.  ROBERT  T.  LINCOLN. 

MR.  F.  B.  CARPENTER  :  My  Lear  Sir  —  I  received  your  letter  and  engraving 
several  days  ago,  and  I  beg  you  to  excuse  my  delay  in  acknowledging  your 
kindness.  Mr.  Halpin  has  had  most  extraordinary  success  in  engraving  your 
portrait  of  my  father,  and  has  made  the  best  likeness  that  I  have  seen.  I  do 

b 


fectly  satisfied  with  it  as  a  likeness.  Mr.  Marshall  made  a  very  good  picture, 
but  there  is  something  unsatisfactory  about  it  which  I  can  not  explain,  and 
I  would  have  no  hesitation  in  choosing  between  the  two.  Mr.  Fuller,  one  of 
the  gentlemen  in  whose  office  I  am  studying,  who  was  an  old  personal  friend 
of  my  father,  was  about  purchasing  Marshall's  portrait,  but  on  seeing  this, 
immediately  said  that  yours  was  the  one  he  wanted.  Speaking  on  the  sub 
ject  a  day  or  two  afterward,  he  said  that  your  picture  left  a  satisfied  impres 
sion  on  his  mind,  which  Marshall's,  though  pleasing  while  he  was  looking  at 
it,  did  not.  I  mention  this  to  slum  what  is  thought  of  your  engraving  by  the 
only  one  of  my  father's  personal  friends  who  has  seen  it.  *  *  *  Please  ac 
cept  my  thanks,  and  my  heartiest  wishes  for  the  success  which  your  work 
merits.  Very  sincerely  yours,  ROBERT  T.  LINCOLN. 

From  HON.  WM.  H.  HERNDON,/OT  twenty  years  Mr.  Lincoln's  law-partner. 
MR.  F.  B.  CARPENTER:  My  Dear  Sir  —  *  *  *  I  received  per  express, 
yesterday  morning,  your  admirable  and  exquisite  engraving  by  Halpin. 
When  I  opened  the  box  and  unrolled  the  portrait,  Mr.  Lincoln  flashed  on  me 
as  never  from  picture.  As  a  portrait—  a  likeness—  it  is  Lincoln.  His  head 
rests  naturally,  easily,  symmetrically  on  his  shoulders  ;  his  hair  parted  upon 


the  proper  side,  the  side  he  chose  to  part  it  on.  *  *  *  It  looks  to  me  and 
is  a  Better  portrait  and  likeness  than  Marshall's.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  a  supe 
rior  work  of  art.  If  art  is  perfection  of  likeness  and  exquisite  culture  of 
execution,  then  I  give  your  picture  the  decided  preference.  *  *  *  Now  let 
me  give  you  a  thousand  thanks.  Your  friend,  W.  H.  HERNDON. 

A  Testimonial  from  New  York  Steel  Plate  Engravers. 

MR.  F/HALPIN,  Engraver,  etc.  :  Dear  Sir—  You  have  called  our  attention 
to  a  card  over  the  signature  of  Ticknor  &  Fields,  containing  an  unwarrant 
able  fling  at  the  character  of  your  engraving  of  Carpenter's  Lincoln  —  the  ob 
ject  of  which  is  patent  upon  its  face.  This  attack,  as  you  say,  provokes  a 
reply,  and  at  your  request,  we  have  examined  Marshall's  engraving  of  Lin 
coln  side  by  side  with  yours,  and  while  we  can  not  speak  of  any  work  of  art 
as  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly"''  (Ticknor  &  Fields'  publication)  does  of  Marshall's 
engraving,  viz.  :  "  What  it  lacks,  art  is  incapable  to  express,  what  it  has  lost, 
memory  is  powerless  to  restore,"  yet  after  a  careful  examination,  we  unhes 
itatingly  say  that  your  engraving  of  Lincoln  is  the  finest  and  most  artistic 
piece  of  portraiture-engraving  ever  executed  on  this  continent,  and  is  decid 
edly  superior  to  Marshall's  engraving  of  Lincoln,  published  by  Ticknor  & 
Fields.  We  say  this  without  any  unfriendly  feeling  toward  Ticknor  &  Fields 
or  Mr.  Marshall,  but  simply  as  an  act  of  justice  to  you,  and  also  that  the  pub 
lic,  who  are  not  judges  of  engraving,  may  understand  the  facts  in  the  case. 

A.  H.  Ritchie,  J.  0.  Buttre,  George  E.  Ferine,  G.  W.  Posselwhite,  Charles 
T.  Giles,  N.  Lott,  W.  L.  Titsworth,  Wm.  Murray,  and  others. 

From  the  HON.  ROBERT  DALE  OWEN,  autJior  of  the  forthcoming  *'  Life  and 
Times  of  Abraham  Lincoln."" 

F.  B.  CARPENTER,  ESQ.  :  My  Dear  Sir—  You  expressed  n  desire  that  I  should 
give  you  my  opinion  of  the  comparative  merits  of  your  engraved  portrait  of 
our  late  President,  just  published,  and  that  previously  offered  to  the  public 
by  Mr.  Marshall.  Last  evening,  at  the  house  of  a  friend,  I  had,  for  the  first 
time,  an  opportunity  of  placing  side  by  side  the  two  likenesses. 

My  opinion,  even  if  it  seems  presumptuous,  so  to  express  it,  is,  that  your 
portrait  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  presented  by  Ilalpin,  is  the  most  faithful  repre 
sentation  that  has  ever  been  or  (now  that  death  has  taken  from  us  the  original) 
ever  will  be  executed,  of  one  among  the  best  and  greatest  men  who  in  any 
age  ever  occupied  a  position  so  exalted  as  that  to  which  our  late  chief  mag 
istrate  was  called. 

Mr.  Marshall's  likeness,  finished  work  of  art  as  it  is,  docs  not  bring  up  be 
fore  my  mind  any  vivid  recollection  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  I  knew  him.  Most 
persons  may  say  that  it  represents  a  handsomer  man  than  your  embodiment 
does.  It  is  not  handsomer  to  me.  The  strong,  somewhat  rugged  features, 
the  sad,  dreamy  eyes,  even  the  coarse,  rebellious  hair,  are  all  so  associated  for 
me  with  the  noble  qualities  of  the  man,  that  I  prefer  them  just  as  they  \vere, 
to  any  smoother  or  more  conventional  a  rendition  of  them. 

I  intend,  in  thus  speaking,  no  expression  of  opinion  touching  the  compar 
ative  merits  of  the  two  artists.  Ruskin  has  well  said  that  it  behooves  an  art 
ist  to  study,  not  Rafaelle.  but  what  Rafnelle  studied.  No  copies  of  nature 
can  supersede  the  teachings  of  nature.  You  had  daily  before  you  for  mouths 
the  man  himself—  an  advantage  which  no  other  artist  ever  had.  It  was  fortu 
nate  for  you  and  for  the  world.  Future  ages  will  know  as  truthfully  as  pencil 
and  graver  can  tell  them,  the  features,  the  expression,  the  idiosyncrasy  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  I  am,  my  dear  sir,  faithfully  yours, 

ROBERT  DALE  OWEN. 

P.  S.—  I 
ser 

interviews  with  him,  during  his  Presidency,  some  of  them  on  important 
subjects. 


.  S.—  I  am  so  far  a  competent  judge  as  to  likenesses  in  this  case,  that  I 
rved  two  years  in  Congress  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  had  some  thirty  or  forty 


PRICES :  Artist's  Proofs,  $15 ;  India  Proofs,  $7  75 ;  Prints,  $4  75. 
C3f"  Agents  wanted  to  sell  the  above  everywhere.    Sold  by  Subscription  only. 
Address  for  the  East, 

J±.  3.  jrOlTTVSOlV,  Publisher, 
No.  113  FULTON  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 

For  Ohio  and  Michigan,  F.  G.  &  A.  C.  ROWE,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
For  territory  farther  West,  DR.  C.  ALLEN,  Chicago,  111. 


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